Hidden Secrets
by Zeki Bahamut
Summary: A telling of the story from Sephiroth's pov, beginning from his escape from Nibelheim as a teen to after the game. I am still in the process of writing Pre War of Wutai
1. The Beginning of the End

Final Fantasy VII: Hidden Secrets  
  
It was on a Night of the Harvest. One of the nights where the moon was full and the light radiated from it like makou. The stars were bright in that little town. Not much pollution fogged the sapphire sky from revealing the treasures it held.  
  
The settlement of Nibelheim was a quiet place, from which a quiet boy was born. He never associated with any of the children, or adults. He spent most of his youth dreaming about his future. The boy often wandered off to the makou reactor atop Mount Nibel.  
  
He went to school, as all other boys of his age did. He became the top student, and yet never answered the questions of the professor, his father.  
  
His name was never spoken from the mouths of his classmates, and therefore, never spoken to. As a child he had no one to depend on, excluding himself, that is, so, by the age of 13, became a mature adult.  
  
He tried to convice his father to let him seek his fortune in the real world. The professor refused him and went on with his top-secret studies for President Shin-Ra, or his precious science.  
  
One night, the boy awoke, only to find himself betrayed by his own father. The crazed scientist had secretively drawn out his son's cells and replaced them with a combination of alien cells and makou. From inside his crystalline capsule, he yelled his fury to his lunatic father laughing, joking, and mocking his dazed son.  
  
From that day on he swore vengeance against the one person who had "cared." The young Sephiroth knew now that his whole life had been a lie. He waited until the mad-man had left for the office, where he sloppily recorded his successful experiment into his log.  
  
Sephiroth called on the alien power coursing through his veins, here he felt unnatural strength flow in his body. Again he swore to the man in the basement as the glass shattered around him, freeing him to train with the professionals in SOLDIER. He planned to become the top ranking general, then return to torture his father, Hojo, for stealing his life from him.  
  
*****************************************************************  
  
Part 1  
  
Please stop. *thump* Please no. *thump* The beating, please stop! *thump* I can't stand it! *thump* The beating. . . . *thump*  
  
. . . . my heart. . . . *thump* . . . . it circulates that alien blood. *thump*  
  
Why? *thump* Why did he betray me? *thump* I'm his one and only son! *thump* Why did he hurt me? *thump* I TRUSTED him!  
  
*thump* With my LIFE, I trusted him! *thump* And he betrayed me.  
  
*thump* . . . . . . . *thump* . . . . . . . *thump* Wake me.  
  
"Yo!"  
  
A gruff voice. Wake me.  
  
"Oh. . . . my. . . ."  
  
Please.  
  
"Are you OK?"  
  
Wake me from this nightmare.  
  
"Yo, Kid, are you OK? Hey, wake up. Wake up. I said 'WAKE UP!!!!'"  
  
The boy, around Seph's age, (give or take a few months) was fiercely shaking the silver-haired teen.  
  
As Sephiroth opened his foggy eyes he was dropped by the immature punk.  
  
"What the-?!" The gasp awakened the drowsy Seph who agilely jumped to his weak feet and attempted to draw the sword he had strapped onto his back the night before.  
  
The boy had spiked, red-brown hair and dull, aqua eyes that sparkled with glee. He wore a dark brown jacket of leather that was trimmed with fur from the back of a bandersnach. Under the jacket he wore a raven-colored tank top that matched remarkably well with his khaki pants.  
  
In his hand he held the sheathed sword from off of Seph's back. He grinned slyly.  
  
"A skilled member of SOLDIER always unarms an unknown enemy," he threw the sword down onto the grassy ground. "And what's with your eyes?"  
  
". . . . . ."  
  
"What? Aren't you gonna answer me?"  
  
". . . . . ."  
  
" C'mon! Don't be rude! Whether friend or foe, I need a soul to talk to! I can't STAND not having a companion to whom I can tell all my useless trivia!"  
  
". . . . . . . . ."  
  
He sighed and held out his hand warmly. "Hi! I'm Zeki, Zeki, um, well, just Zeki."  
  
Sephiroth was still tense. He did not extend his hand. Never, he told himself, never again will I trust ANYONE. I can only trust myself.  
  
"Please, leave me be." Sephiroth whispered coldly to Zeki.  
  
"Why? By the looks of things, in battle, I would have the advantage. Are ya AFRAID of fighting a mere BOY? Afraid of loosing? Loosing to ME?"  
  
"Why do you say that the advantage in battle is yours?"  
  
"You have no weapon, and I do. Why else?"  
  
Zeki was suddenly held very tightly with a knife's cool steel blade about to slice the skin on his throat. "First lesson: NEVER trust an unknown enemy. ESPECIALLY when you think they are unarmed."  
  
Seph loosened his grip on the sweating teen and let him struggle free. "Watch out Zeki, next time you might not be so lucky. Your apponent might not be as generous as me."  
  
"You call THAT generous?!"  
  
"I let you live, did I not?"  
  
"Barley!"  
  
"A person cannot BARLEY let one live." Seph sat down on the lush grass surrounding him.  
  
Zeki slowly creeped up behind the anti-social young man in an attempt of a surprise attack.  
  
"Stop trying to beat me, Zeki, I hear you sneaking up on me."  
  
Zeki continued sneaking, and telling himself He can't hear me! He's just saying that! What a FOOL!!! He swiftly placed his throwing knife firmly against Seph's neck, slowly pressing down.  
  
"Hello, Zeki. Why are you trying to use my own tricks against me?" His voice was calm and smooth as he said these words, yet his eyes remained fixed on the nothingness before him.  
  
Zeki dropped the knife into Seph's lap and collapsed behind the cold young soldier.  
  
"MAN, I just give up! I GIVE UP!"  
  
"What?"  
  
"My dream. I'll never be as good as anyone in SOLDIER. I'll be sent to the regulars for sure! All I can do is use this stupid scythe blade. I can't wield a SWORD!!!! Now you, you're different. You have potential. You're a natural."  
  
"Excuse me? What did you say?"  
  
"You're a natural?"  
  
"Oh, OK. I thought you called me unnatural."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"That's what I've been called my whole life. I always felt like a specimen in my father's basement. He was the only one who. . . ."  
  
" 'Who' what?"  
  
"Cared. But he betrayed me and I became one of his experiments. That's why I'm like I am."  
  
"What? An anti-social, oh, what's the word? Ass-hole! Yeah! An anti- social, cold hearted, ass-hole! That's what you are!"  
  
"I'm sorry you feel that way, but I don't know how to care. I never had any friends. They all shunned me. I was the outcast, so, I guess that you are right. You are good with people, apparently they liked you. You can talk to a person without feeling insecure. You seem like one who has been cared for, one who knows love. One who can show their feelings without being strangled. You are sarcastic, and people can tell. If I tried to be like you, I would be shot for offending President Shin-Ra." He stood and picked up his sword.  
  
"Zeki?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Don't give up your dream."  
  
He walked past the depressed staff wielder and headed for the cliff overlooking Midgar. This is where I start my journey.  
  
An agonizing pain tore through Sephiroth's brain. His hands reached for his aching head as he collapsed onto the flowers which had beautifully bloomed. They were crushed and so was Sephiroth's mind. The piercing scream in his brain would not stop. Sorrow, hatred, fear, and loss filled his heart and he felt as if his hands were drenched with blood and caked with dirt. Why did he feel this pain?!  
  
Why did his heart wrench with sorrow for the dead?  
  
Then, in his mind, came a vision. A familiar young man lay on the, now red, sandy, earth. Bullet holes were gushing blood and his spiky black hair was covered with caked redness. His abdomen was sliced and his body lay broken and still. Death approached the blood drenched body of the boy.  
  
*****************************************************************  
  
The shaking came again.  
  
"Come ON man!!! Ya GOTTA wake up! Please! Wake up! You won't let me give up, and I won't let you! Kid, PLEASE! Can you hear me? I didn't mean it when I called you an anti-social ass-hole! I'm sorry for what I did, just don't die! I'm your friend, Kid!"  
  
A coughing spasm erupted from Sephiroth's chest. Zeki stopped shaking the, now conscious, Seph.  
  
It was a struggle to squint open his eyes, but once he did he inhaled a long, shaky breath and coughed once before saying: "I don't die easily." Then passed out for the rest of the day.  
  
*****************************************************************  
  
*crackle* What? *crackle* Fire? *crackle, pop, pop, crackle* Popcorn? *crackle* A figure? *crackle* Mother? *crackle* No. *pop, pop* Who are you?  
  
" Jenny."  
  
"Jenny?"  
  
The silhouette of a girl nodded. She sat by the fire from which the only light radiated. Darkness surrounded the campsite.  
  
"That's right."  
  
"I've never seen you before."  
  
"No."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"I don't know, Sephiroth."  
  
"How did you. . . ."  
  
"This is your mind Sephiroth. I am just your imagination run wild. Or, that's what others would say. I've only now met you, but I've been here your whole life."  
  
". . . . My whole. . . . life?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"How?"  
  
"I don't know everything, Sephiroth."  
  
"Well, you're a spirit, are you not?"  
  
"Sephiroth, don't try to play a game of wits with me!"  
  
"And why not?" he grinned.  
  
"I will always win. I know ALL your tricks."  
  
"Impossible."  
  
"And why not?" she must have smirked, at LEAST.  
  
"Not even I know all of them."  
  
Jenny sighed. "Sephiroth, you need to watch over your friend while training in SOLDIER. He needs more training, and YOU shall be his tutor."  
  
"Why?" His smile faded away.  
  
"Just do as your told makou boy."  
  
He crossed his arms. "Fine."  
  
"Then wake up."  
  
*************************************************************  
  
Sephiroth's eyes flashed open, illuminating the darkness with their green glow. The campsite Zeki had made looked like the dream site. Jenny was gone, and the blackness was no longer so black.  
  
Sephiroth looked above him, only to see the overhanging ledge. How. .  
  
"Unnnnngh"  
  
Seph turned to look at the snoring Zeki, rolled up into his bedroll like sushi. Drool trickled down the side of his chin. For once Seph realized how lonely his life had been.  
  
He had only his looks, wits, talents, and loneliness. Never had he been trusted this far, not even by Hojo. That kid is STUPID, or extremely brave. He has to be one of the two to trust a monster, like me.  
  
"Ha, ha, ha! Tee, hee, ha, ho, heeeeeeeeeee! Slurp! MMMMM, pie."  
  
For the first time in his memorable life, he felt joyful, he smiled and all of his anger drained away to savor the moment of his first REAL friend. The smile turned into snickering as Seph rolled over and went back to sleep.  
  
*****************************************************************  
  
*CRASH*  
  
Sephiroh jumped out of his bed roll, startled by the crash of pots and pans. His makou eyes gleamed wildly at Zeki, who had been attempting to cook.  
  
Seph snickered as Zeki scrambled to clean the mess he had made. He kneeled to help the young man.  
  
"Hey, Kid! Go lie down, you should still be resting. I'll take care of this mess."  
  
"Zeki, you really should be more careful."  
  
"Look, Kid, I'm not the one who fell off the cliff. Anyway, you're always dissing the way I do things. Can't I, at least, COOK without help? My GOSH, you're so DEMANDING!"  
  
Seph continued to clean.  
  
"NO, Kid! Go lie DOWN! I know first aid."  
  
Zeki had to drag Seph to his bed roll.  
  
"I hope you don't mind eating dragon."  
  
"Have you gone to the Nibel Makou reactor?"  
  
"No, I bought the meat. Dragon is my favorite!"  
  
Zeki unloaded a pouch at his side. Meat, fresh meat, was placed in a pan over the remains of the fire.  
  
The ground shook and voices seemed to echo in the site. Zeki was going to use magic.  
  
"NO, Zeki!" Seph lunged for Zeki.  
  
"Fire 3"  
  
The dragon meat was set ablaze. It crackled and popped wildly.  
  
"I guess, no breakfast," Seph moaned.  
  
The fire died away to reveal perfectly cooked slabs of meat. Seph's eyes went wide. Zeki smiled humbly.  
  
*rmble, grgle, ush, ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmgrrrrrrrrrr*  
  
Seph's stomach couldn't withstand the torture of seeing the perfect meat slowly placed onto nice, pretty, flowery, plates and see the cranberry juice poured, ever so slowly, into nice, pretty, crystalline, glasses, then served even slower so that by the time it reached Seph, he would have died of starvation.  
  
He pounced on the meal and swiftly ate his half. He stepped away from the scorched wood on which the other slab of meat sat.  
  
But Zeki just stared at Seph and slowly inched towards the camp fire.  
  
Once Zeki finally reached the meat, he placed it onto a napkin. Then he poured the juice into a cardboard cup.  
  
He ate as swiftly as Seph, only he, somehow, was able to have better manners.  
  
Once finished Zeki cast mini on the materials, then stuffed them into the small pouch.  
  
"C'mon! Midgar awaits!"  
  
"Hey, wait. I thought I was not well enough to travel."  
  
"Well, judging by the show you performed at breakfast, I dub thee healthy enough to travel to Midgar and see a REAL doctor."  
  
Seph sighed deeply and led the way to the City of Gray, Midgar.  
  
Part 2  
  
Midgar. The city that can be identified by only one word: Old.  
  
It was as old as the Antients. The makou reactors had not yet destroyed the inhabitants surrounding the city of metal. It was divided into sectors, which had long forgotten names. The sectors had once been towns, but then turned into cities, their names faded into history, and are now referred to Sectors 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.  
  
During that time of happiness Midgar had been beautiful. Flowers used to bloom and grow in fields and pastures. The city was said to be made of silver.  
  
But as that silver tarnished, the city turned dull and gray. The towns were no longer rich and beautiful. As time went on, they fell into a pit of despair and the beauty was destroyed to reveal the ugly core. The cities fell to the slums and Shin-Ra combined them together to create the city of sadness, Midgar.  
  
This is where we left off.  
  
Seph and Zeki were just about to enter the towering monster.  
  
Zeki's head was lifted up towards the sky. Measuring the arching distance above him he spoke with the silver haired teenager beside him. "Is that. . . ."  
  
A firm hand was placed on the shoulder of Zeki's jacket. Startled at the sudden pressure, he jumped and looked at the young man behind him.  
  
"Yup!" His voice was one of an uplifted heart. It hid something from the world, but the sarcastic tone instantly tore your mind from the secret. "Isn't she a. . . . nevermind." His eyes lifted to the towering city. "Well, she sure is a BIG sucker."  
  
Seph calmly turned to look at the dark haired man. His eyes were brown and specked with gold and green. His spiky, jet colored, hair shone against the silver moon. He wore a black tank top and faded jeans. His opposite hand was shoved into the depths of his pocket. A pack hung loosely on a black belt and the sword that was slung over his taught shoulders was broad and as long as he was tall. His combat boots were brown leather and seemed to fit the kid's style, no matter how badly it clashed with the rest of his wardrobe.  
  
He looked to Sephiroth and smiled. "The name's Zack."  
  
What is it about this boy?! I should be ready to kill him if he makes a threatening move! For some reason, I feel as if. . . .no. It's impossible. I have never met a person named Zack. Seph turned away from the figure of the male.  
  
Zack turned to Zeki. "What's up with him?"  
  
"Awww, don't worry about him. He's always cold."  
  
Seph flinched, then resumed his blank stare into nothing. Cold. I have always been cold. I can't help it. Even Zeki would be cold if he had to go through what I did! Well, I can't control his feelings. If he thinks I'm cold. . . .but Zeki's my friend, not the stupid kids in Nibelheim!  
  
"Look, I'm kinda new to this area, could I hang with you two? Well, just till I find Shin-Ra HQ." Zack shrugged carelessly, then stood with a hand on his hip and his right foot in front of him. "If not, well I guess I'll have to, well, find someone else."  
  
"Well ,Zack, you're in luck!"  
  
"What, do you know how to get there?"  
  
"No. It's my first time here, too, but we're going to Shin-Ra HQ!"  
  
Zack rubbed his sore eyes. "Great, now we can all get lost together."  
  
Seph mumbled to himself.  
  
The two young men looked at Seph.  
  
"What was that?" Zeki said as he crossed his arms across his chest.  
  
Seph turned around. "Do I always have to repeat myself? I said let's just get going."  
  
"Whoa! Kid! Are you OK? You look deathly pale!"  
  
"Egads, you're right!" Zack pulled out a phone from his pack and lifted it to his ear as he looked at the stars. "Hey! Lenoa! I have a friend down here in need of medical treatment! Could you meet us outside Sector 7? How FAST? This kid is ghastly pale and more than likely running a high fever! He's got a gash in his head and it's COLD out here! How fast do you THINK? You need an amount of time? OK. . . .ASAP!!!! Thank you!" He clicked the phone off and sighed.  
  
Sephiroth reached up to his head. To his surprise he felt the gushing blood seep through his cold fingers and the silver hair around it was drenched in the garnet substance. My blood. That's the key! If I drain enough blood, I can kill the alien cells inside of me. . . . That was the last thing he thought before he collapsed on the rocky soil.  
  
*****************************************************************  
  
My body. It's frozen. Why is this ice surrounding me? What is happening? Sephiroth's mind reached for the materia floating in front of his torso. The black orb was absorbed through the flesh of the man.  
  
I can't control my mind! My body won't move! Why is my soul burning? Am I fighting back? I'm watching this show from my own eyes, but WHY won't my body listen to my summons? Get me out of this NIGHTMARE!!!!  
  
A needle pierced his flesh, biting into his soul, and smothering the last flicker of fire in the young man's spirit.  
  
"That should calm him down." The female voice was a distant echo in the fading dream.  
  
"And if it doesn't?" Zack's voice was calm and concerned.  
  
"We'll just have to see."  
  
That dream. . . . Zack. . . .  
  
*************************************************************  
  
"That should calm him down." The woman beside Zack said in her soft voice. She was a doctor that Zack knew well. She was a scientist, but she was one of the very few women to be in training for the SOLDIER program. She was mentally and physically fit. Her studies for health were only to help her comrades in battle. Later, she had been asked by Shin-Ra to join the science committee. She had refused and has been working in the regulars ever since. She had silver-violet hair and eyes the color of amethyst. She had a nice figure under the white coat that hung loosely over her small body.  
  
"And if it doesn't?" Zack felt his voice nearly crack as he asked these words. He had no idea why he protected this guy. He was a cold son-of- a-bitch. He didn't care about ANYONE but himself, and he never showed the common courtesy shared between most people.  
  
"We'll just have to see."  
  
"I trust you, Lenoa! I always have, but this guy seems to worry me. He must be very strong considering how much blood he lost before he passed out, but he had no IDEA that the wound was even there. The boy with him didn't notice and apparently he had been the man's partner. It seemed to appear out of nowhere, like it happened in another world and affected him here. I don't get it."  
  
"Any normal scientist would say that it's against all laws of science. But I'm not a normal scientist, so I can speak freely." :p so there!  
  
"So, what do you have to say?"  
  
"Anything's possible."  
  
"And why do you say that?"  
  
"To annoy Shin-Ra, why else?"  
  
Lenoa turned away from the table to look at Zeki. His aqua eyes were staring blankly at the table on which his friend lay. Why didn't I see it before? It was clear as day! One second the kid was stable, and the next, on the ground bleeding to death. If Zack hadn't come along. . . .  
  
Zack snapped his fingers in front of Zeki's face. The boy jolted upright and stared into his brown-green-gold eyes, terrified. Zeki smiled shakily and asked, "Will he be OK?"  
  
The boy's eyes wavered, then softened as he replied, "We'll just have to see."  
  
*****************************************************************  
  
  
  
The world is so peaceful. What happened to the fire, the ice, what about Zack. Were they all just dreams? If it was a dream, then why did I feel all those emotions? Where am I?  
  
A figure stepped out from the shadows. He wore the uniform of a Shin- Ra general and his makou green eyes illuminated the shadows around him. His long silver hair shimmered as he walked. The sword in his hand was over 6 feet long and his boots clunked on the shadowed ground.  
  
"Who are you?" Sephiroth's voice was cold and soft, like faintly drifting snow.  
  
The man's eyes gleamed crazily. In the words he spoke ice seemed to slice through Sephiroth's being and an aura unfurled around the body, making him seem invulnerable.  
  
"You idiotic mortal. You can't even recognize the form of your future owner. You cower before your own being, cringing in fear. How will you become the general you so long to be?"  
  
Sephiroth sneered and stood from his crouching position. "You, you're the one! The one in my dream! Are you also the one who will destroy the being of Zack?"  
  
"I be that creature."  
  
"I would never do such a thing."  
  
"But you will."  
  
"No one can be that heartless!"  
  
"But you will be."  
  
"I won't be the insane being before me!"  
  
"I am the only one who won't hurt you, Sephiroth."  
  
"You spoke my name." Seph was appalled.  
  
"Of course. I am the only friend you will ever need."  
  
". . . .My friend. . . ."  
  
"Yes. Your one, and only friend."  
  
". . . .Only friend. . . ."  
  
"Yes. If you join me, you will never need them. You will never be weak, and all will belong to you. Including the godhood that your heart screams for."  
  
". . . .godhood. . . ."  
  
"Yes."  
  
". . . .all my dreams. . . ."  
  
"Yes."  
  
". . . .revenge on. . . .Hojo."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"You're. . . ." Sephiroth glared through the being in front of him.". . . .from Hojo! What he injected into me! You woke me by whispering promises of power and fame in my ear!"  
  
"No. I have no idea what you're babbling on about. You're just tired. You need rest. Sleep, Sephiroth. And tomorrow, you'll find me."  
  
"Sorry, your tricks won't work on me again! You may be physically stronger than me, but this is MY mind, not your own! Get out!" Seph smiled  
  
"What?"  
  
"Get out."  
  
"You are speaking to the GENERAL!"  
  
"Yes. GET out."  
  
"I will not listen to such insubordination!"  
  
"I am you, am I not? GET OUT!!!!"  
  
The green makou radiated around him and all his thoughts came crashing down into the no longer peaceful night.  
  
"I'll be back, FRIEND. I'll be back."  
  
*************************************************************  
  
A sudden crash woke Zack from his deep sleep. One of which cannot be broken. But as the feeling of dread descended upon him, his conscious mind forced him to rise to the surface of the gory dreams of death engulfing his thoughts.  
  
As his body jolted out of the wool blankets surrounding him, his thoughts came to rest on the man in the opposite room. Sweat trickled down his face. Why did he fear this man so? Why did the thought of the kid make his blood turn cold at this moment? A dark aura seemed to drift into the room assigned to him. He knew the boy was not evil. He just had a dark past, like himself. . . .But this would have been ridiculous! The unconscious warier could be NOTHING like himself! He was a cold hearted alien. The power from the crash had to have originated in his quarters.  
  
"Oh, my, GOSH!!! What is that bastard DOING? He wouldn't KILL any of the people working so hard on him like that!"  
  
The dark man then rushed out of the room, not believing his own words.  
  
A thunderous roar erupted out of the room Sephiroth occupied. The young warier seemed to have been in a dream state, and yet his glowing eyes were wide open. The rage seemed to make him look like a rabid animal from many years before. The fury in his green eyes had a crazy gleam in them and the fire, oh, the fire in them burned every living beings' soul like a sea of blood.  
  
"YOU'RE FROM HOJO!!! WHAT HE INJECTED INTO ME!!! YOU WOKE ME BY WHISPERING PROMISES OF POWER AND FAME IN MY EAR!"  
  
A soft pause that lasted only a second left dreary reminders of Zack's own past of blood.  
  
"YOUR TRICKS WON'T WORK ON ME THIS TIME! THIS IS MY MIND, NOT YOUR OWN, GET OUT!!!!" An insane smile drifted over his face.  
  
Zack ran over to the raving man and softly placed his hands on his shoulders.  
  
"What? Kid, get a hold of yourself!" Sephiroth pushed the caring hands away and lifted the table above his head.  
  
"Kid, you're not gonna. . . ."  
  
"GET OUT!"  
  
"Are you CRAZY?!"  
  
"Yes, get OUT!"  
  
"I have every right to be here! I'm the one who sent for the doctors to help heal you!"  
  
"I am you, am I not? GET OUT!!!!!"  
  
He threw the table at the young man in the door way.  
  
The force knocked Zack off his feet and blood spilled from his mouth and chest. The sharp corners bit into flesh and muscle, broke the pearly white bones, and the scream of the victim seared the burning air with its blood curdling echo.  
  
"Why? Why did you do this to me? I was your. . . ." Zack head slacked against the wall; he was trapped and unconscious.  
  
Fire lit on the wooden floor and the flames edged closer to Zack every second. The crackling filled the room, tainting the air with the color of dried blood, Zack's blood.  
  
  
  
Part 3  
  
Zeki saw the whole thing. Sephiroth screaming about a general in his mind, the kid mumbling about his dreams and his one and only friend, even the beginning of the flames. He felt the faint dark glow of insanity drift from the young warier. He rushed in to keep an eye on him.  
  
Once inside the room, he saw doctors taking samples of his blood. Zeki had fought down the anger burning inside of him. The kid had lost enough blood, he wasn't sure he would survive. Once they thrust the last needle through his pale skin, Sephiroth had screamed his fury, throwing the scientists into walls and pieces of experimental equipment. The ones who managed to escape, well, he didn't know what kind of torture would haunt THEM. Zeki knew why the kid had done that. It was his father.  
  
He had screamed his father's name during the battle, Hojo.  
  
Hojo was the head scientist from Shin-Ra. The kid had also said something about the Nibel reactor. If he was from Nibelheim, shouldn't that be where Hojo had been doing his latest experiments?  
  
But, I'm from Nibelheim, shouldn't I know this kid? Especially if he's Hojo's son. Shin-Ra had placed Hojo in the Shin-Ra mansion for his studies. It had enough room to spare! All those experiments, the poor kid! Then HE became one of them. WHY don't I know his name?!!! No one could miss someone entering that giant monster! He should be about MY age! He SHOULD have been in MY classes! So WHY don't I know ANYTHING about him?! These thoughts haunted Zeki as he rushed into the room to try to help the fallen Zack.  
  
He strained his muscles, trying to free the dark man. As he did, he tried to talk to him, but his voice faded as the flames grew brighter and the heat more intense. He had reached his limit. He realized, with much pain, that alone, he could not save the man who had helped his partner.  
  
"The kid. . ."  
  
Over the roaring of the flames he heard a rumble, not just a rumble, but the scream of one who's anger had taken control. The ground shook with such ferocity that Zeki fell into the flames around him. The heat seared his flesh and ate at his soul. The pain tore him from the inside out and he felt like he was spinning into oblivion. His breath was smothered by the black smoke, and the little fiery tongues licked at his gushing blood. The darkness around his burning form grew and pulsated until it devoured the whole world he knew.  
  
He was left in a stage of turmoil. Floating in the blackness around him, wondering what became of his friends, for all he knew now was pain. The pain that destroys who you are, the kind of pain that gives you the need to look back on your life to see what good you have done. The kind of pain that hurts your whole being, the kind that kills. So why wasn't he dying?  
  
Through the darkness he saw a flash of blue. An ice blue that made the pain disappear. It healed the physical damage that would have killed him, but the spiritual ache lingered, yet fainter than before. The blue flames seemed as cold as ice, like Sephiroth. But the longer the cold went the warmer it became, healing all the wounds on Zeki's body, and smothering the fire. His vision came so suddenly that he was sure it was a dream, but there in front of him was Sephiroth, his silver hair blowing in an unfelt breeze and from his outstretched hand poured the blue liquid flame.  
  
Zeki's eyes regained the color that they once bore, as a child. The dull aqua had filmed over to hide the tragedies of his child hood. In his bright eyes shone the innocence of a small boy, yet the pain showed Sephiroth why the cheerful young man wanted to be in SOLDIER.  
  
*****************************************************************  
  
The flames had engulfed him once he regained consciousness. How the fire started was a mystery to him, but somehow he knew that it was his fault.  
  
He looked in front of him to see a hospital table crushing Zack in his own puddle of blood surrounding him. Over the motionless figure hovered a shadow. The silhouette looked vaguely familiar, but in a groggy haze, seemed to be another. From the direction of the men came a low mumbling.  
  
The figure dropped the slightly lifted table onto Zack and the fury in him grew to maximum level. He had never been considered a friend, but now that he was, he was determined to do whatever he could for them, even give his own life.  
  
The scream of rage erupted from his lips and the room shook like the world was going to fall to pieces, as Sephiroth believed his heart did long ago. The scream seemed to last for ages, but only seconds had passed when the figure dropped into the fire with an agonizing cry.  
  
His body caught the flame instantly, the fur on his leather jacket smoldering. His flesh burned to black and his hair seemed to be the fire, the orange tint faded in with the inferno around him. Blood seeped from the parched, cracked skin and a lake of crimson encompassed his twitching frame. The dull aqua eyes held so much pain and agony that Sephiroth believed that the boy's soul would soon collapse, but it was those, now blind, eyes that told the story of his past. In the depths of them Seph saw Nibelheim enveloped in a bonfire much like this one. Bodies in flames miles high and houses burning all life.  
  
A faint, crazed, voice in his mind whispered, "This is what you want to do to those little brats who made your past so unbearable."  
  
Seph ignored those words, but they seemed to embed themselves into the back of his mind.  
  
The figure in the fire moved once more, then went still as the pool of garnet around him boiled in the flames. The mind of the young boy still seemed to call to him through the crackling flames.  
  
The pain that kills. The pain will kill me Kid, why do you want to hurt us?  
  
Kid? The voice hit a nerve in his soul. He had heard it before.  
  
Come ON, man! Ya GOTTA wake up! Please! Wake up! You won't let me give up, and I won't let you! Kid, PLEASE! Can you hear me?  
  
That voice. . . .  
  
I'm sorry for what I did, just don't die! I'm your friend, Kid!  
  
"ZEKI!" The shout broke through the flames and he walked towards the boy with an out stretched hand, and through his hand poured the legendary Blue Flame of Healing. This comes straight from the heart to help one you truly care for. The call of need must be pouring from the soul of the hurting. A memory must connect the two in friendship. This memory must be able to break through all things, even death.  
  
As the fire poured out of Sephiroth the orange and yellow flames were smothered out and every one it touched was completely healed, physically. Zeki's skin slowly turned pink, then peach, and finally to the normal pale color. His eyes were still open in death, but as all else healed, the soul returned to the body and Zeki's eyes brightened to the color of a newborn's and with that showed Sephiroth the hidden and dark past of the boy.  
  
*****************************************************************  
  
A small boy sat outside Nibelheim, tears streaming down his pink face. Newcomers entered the gates of the town with a boy around his own age. His silver hair was long and blew in the wind, shimmering as a swan's feathers would in the early morning breeze. Even then the boy's eyes had the bright makou glow of a SOLDIER. His pale skin looked like a ghost's and the glowing green anger in his face made him seem even more unnatural. As the truck drove through the child just looked at the young boy on the side of the road, crying.  
  
Zeki sniffed a couple times as he watched the truck drive up to the Shin-Ra mansion. He occasionally saw the boy and the color of his eyes was forever tattooed into his mind. Every time he saw that unnerving color, he shuddered.  
  
As time went on, the memory of this had been hidden in the boy's memory. A few years later, some men from Shin-Ra came into town and wanted some rooms in the hotel his family owned. Zeki knew that something was up, because no one from Shin-Ra ever came by, anyway the men looked more like muggers than soldiers, but his parents lent them the room against Zeki's protests. The next day the six-year-old awoke to find the men hovering over his parents' corpses, blood smeared over their faces and knives in their hands. Zeki screamed at the sight of his parents.  
  
The men looked up at him, their eyes gleaming like killers. The small child ran back up the stairs and the men followed as the sky outside became dark.  
  
Why they persued the boy was unknown, but as they caught him, they whispered words of death to all Nibelheim. All, but him. So he could live with his guilt for all of his life. If he told about the murder, he would be tortured for months, of even years on end with only enough food to be kept alive, but no more. They would first gouge out his eyes, then stuff shards of glass into his ears, and finally slice off his tongue, inch by inch, letting it bleed down his face and drip onto the floor.  
  
For the child, the nightmare never ended. Each night he would dream this sequence over and over until daybreak.  
  
*************************************************************  
  
Sephiroth jumped back in shock. So, he WAS one of the brat kids from Nibelheim. One of the people who had made his life so miserable. One of THEM.  
  
He's not like the others. He cares about me. He was the first to trust a monster like me. A monster who knows no love. A monster who can only hate the world. Everything about me scares most, but only once did he flinch. But it was a hidden secret in his soul that was forced out when the site of the glowing makou came into play. I freed him of the curse, for now he remembers the little boy who moved to Nibelheim so long ago. I do not blame him for my pain, he did not know. I have no one to blame except Hojo. I will not punish Zeki for my father's folly.  
  
Zeki's eyes focused on the man in front of him. The blue flow had stopped, but the pale glow still rippled around the boy, making him look like an angel.  
  
He coughed a little, exhaustion covering him like a blanket, and asked, "Are you all right, Kid?"  
  
Sephiroth nodded and smiled sadly, realizing that Zack might have already left on his long trip to heaven. As Zeki slowly placed his head down onto the cold floor, Sephiroth strode over and moved him to the couch in the corner of the room.  
  
The warier drifted towards the debris in the doorway. He dreamily hoisted the remains over his head to see a crushed figure. His black hair disheveled and his skin torn. Bone was revealed under burnt flesh and his chest did not move with the breath of life. Zack's face looked eerily peaceful, but the look of pain still lingered.  
  
Tears trickled down Seph's face as he placed the table on the floor beside the body. Hunched over in searing pain, Sephiroth grieved for his partner.  
  
***************************************************************  
  
"He had done so much for me, why did I even. . . . It was YOU!"  
  
The man in the corner of Sephiroth's mind shrugged.  
  
"It was your own doing. I cannot control your body."  
  
"Why should I believe you? You lied to me before, why not now?"  
  
"The boy is not lost."  
  
"You lie again!"  
  
"I do not."  
  
"How? He has stopped breathing, and his heart no longer beats."  
  
"As Zeki's had. But the soul has not left for the Lifestream."  
  
"Livestream? Isn't that the place where all spirits merge and become new souls?"  
  
"You've been keeping up with your studies." He smiled, his makou eyes gleaming with crazy joy. "You still carry a trace of the fire that healed the unconscious scientists, and Zeki. Use your tears to bring forth the memory, then heal your friend with the fire around you."  
  
Sephiroth nodded and brought himself out of his mind of ice to bring back his dead friend.  
  
*************************************************************  
  
Part 4  
  
Sephiroth walked up to his deceased friend and lifted him into his arms. Here he let the blue of the fire gather into a single tear. Onto Zack's torn chest it fell. His body glowed the color of the flames and slowly healed. His wounds closed and sealed shut. Only one remained, this turned pink and then the dull salmon of a scar. There was enough of the Flame of Life to bring him back, but not enough to completely heal his body.  
  
His eyelids flickered and, slowly, opened to reveal the clear hazel eyes of the child that Sephiroth never met. But, unlike Zeki's, did not reveal his past. The scar seemed to glow with his awakening. It ranged from his ear to his cheekbone. From there it faded into the pale peach flesh covering his being.  
  
Sephiroth smiled and joy filled his heart. In showing his true emotions, Zack saw that the teenager wasn't at all what he seemed. He was just lonely and had never been taught or shown true emotions. Zack understood him now. He was a boy just like himself. A lonely child with only his parents. The young man in front of him might have not even had that. Now that he had met real people, he knew what true feelings were like. Joy was suddenly not just a mask covering up a horrible past, but a warm, comforting feeling. One that soothed you, body and soul.  
  
Zack smiled and felt a sharp sting in his jaw. It felt stiff and rigid, but he continued smiling at the silver-haired youth whose eyes were filling with warm tears of joy.  
  
"Hey, Kid. I'm OK. There's no reason to cry."  
  
"Zack, I'm the one who did it, I feel guilt, and another feeling, covering my soul. I have felt it many times on this night."  
  
"That feeling, is Joy, my friend. And this emotion should go with you all your life."  
  
"Joy, I've heard of that." He laughed quietly with Zack as the boy drifted into sleep in his arms.  
  
***********************************************************  
  
"What's that smell? Fire! Burning! HERE!"  
  
Lenoa looked up from the manuscript she had been scribbling. She shot out of her chair and ran out to the laboratory.  
  
The last bit of the flames was being smothered by a blue smoke that was rising from small tongues of blue fire. From out of this smoke walked a tall, thin figure of a young man. He carried a bundle in his arms and as he drew closer, she could make out his features. He had long silver hair and eyes that had shone through the smog first. They were an amazing green, that of a cat's and his pupils were drawn into slits. He wore a black dress shirt and charcoal slacks. His boots were dusty, but you could still see the ebony peeking out from under the soil. He was the man she had picked up for Zack!  
  
The bundle became clearer as well, and Lenoa could see that it was not a bundle, but a human. The spiky black hair gave away his identity at once. It was the boy that had been her best friend for years. She could see why he had cared so much about this young man. He was loyal, and would do anything to help one of his companions.  
  
He stopped in front of the scientist and sneered. Sephiroth turned from her and placed Zack in the chair beside him. He then walked back into the smoke and flames. Lenoa's jewel-like eyes widened at the scar along Zack's face. She kneeled and was reaching for Zack's shoulders to shake him when a cold voice cut her off.  
  
"Let him sleep. Yes, I am the one who did this to him."  
  
Lenoa turned to see Sephiroth place Zeki gently into the chair across from Zack.  
  
"If you wish so interrogate me, you may. Before you do, let me say that I was not conscious when I did it, so I cannot answer many of the questions you will ask, scientist."  
  
"Why do you say it like that?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Why do you say scientist as if it was a bad thing?"  
  
"My father. . . .no, I should not trouble you with my past."  
  
"I have dealt with people much worse off. Please, I am not a scientist, I am a doctor, and only that because I wish to help my comrades in battle."  
  
"Fine. My father was a scientist, I will not state his name so do not ask. He had been the only one who 'loved' me, for my mother is dead and I had no friends. I trusted him with my life, and he knew it. One night, I found myself in a capsule surrounded by a glowing chemical with a needle up my arm. My father had turned on me and I became an experiment. I knew that I had to get away, but the only way I could learn to care for myself, would be in SOLDIER. So, I cursed many a time, and finally left my home town of Nibelheim."  
  
"I see why you would hate them, but I hate Shin-Ra, too. You aren't alone. Now, how did you meet Zeki?"  
  
"Well, he found me."  
  
"All right, how did he find you?"  
  
"I was asleep. I had stopped to rest for the night and had fallen asleep. Zeki found me the next morning. I was having a nightmare and, apparently, found me tossing and turning. He then un-armed me and woke me by shaking me as you were going to do to Zack. I might as well go on and answer your next question.  
  
"We talked for a while, fought a little, then I sat down. I had a really strange dream and woke up on a bed roll in camp. Zeki was asleep and mumbling about pie. . . ."  
  
A slight laugh interrupted the story.  
  
"Mmmmmmmmmm. . . . he, he. . . .slurp. . . . pie. . . .heeeeeeee. . . .he he. . . ."  
  
"Just like that. Any way, I went back to sleep. The next morning, Zeki had been attempting to cook. He dropped a pan and that woke me up. We ate drank, talked, and fought some more. Then we left for Midgar.  
  
"Zeki had been ogling over the city and Zack came along and nearly scared the $#!^ out of him. They talked a while. . . ."  
  
"Let me guess, and fought?"  
  
"No. Zeki then made the comment that I looked deathly pale. That's when Zack called a friend of his. I felt the blood on my head, then collapsed."  
  
"What about the fire?"  
  
"I don't know, you'd have to ask Zack or Zeki."  
  
"The scar?"  
  
"I, somehow, crushed Zack with the hospital table."  
  
"A hospital table?!"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"No human could lift that!"  
  
Sephiroth glared at her. "Maybe I'm not human."  
  
"What? You couldn't POSSIBLY be in the SOLDIER program at your age yet."  
  
"That was my father's experiment."  
  
"The only person, er, scientist with that authority is that creep Hojo. . . . you're saying that. . . . oh my GOSH. I didn't think that he had enough love and or patience to have a kid!"  
  
"He didn't."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"I raised myself with his food and drink. I hardly ever saw him, except at school. He was my professor as well. The rest of his time he spent in the lab downstairs."  
  
"Um, go on with the story."  
  
"Well, I saw a figure once I gained consciousness. I thought he was bringing Zack harm, so I yelled and the whole room shook. The figure fell into the fire, and I stood there watching it burn, until I found that it was Zeki. He was dead by then and a memory called to me. When I had fallen, after my first dream, he had said 'Come ON man!!! Ya GOTTA wake up! Please! Wake up! You won't let me give up, and I won't let you! Kid, PLEASE! Can you hear me?! I'm sorry for what I did, just don't die! I'm your friend, Kid!'" He sighed. "That is what I heard. After he had called to me, asking why I would want to hurt them. Of course, I didn't remember killing Zack."  
  
Lenoa looked shocked. Sephiroth gazed at her. He hadn't realized that he just admitted that Zack had died.  
  
His eyebrows raised and he shook his hands at her. "Don't be led the wrong way!" His expression returned to memory. "Then I yelled, as anyone would, knowing that he had killed his friends. Out of the depths of my soul, a blue fire came. It flowed over the scientists, whom I had injured, then passed over Zeki, completely healing him, other than exhaustion. Zack, however, was under the table, dead. I placed Zeki on the couch in the room, and left to dig Zack out. I hoisted the table above my head so that I could examine his injuries, for he was lying in a puddle of his own blood. He was cut, torn, burned, and no breath passed through his breast. I for a while I could only feel sorrow, then. . .I realized that if the fire had brought Zeki back from the depths of death. So I lifted him into my arms, after I had set the table aside, and let the fire gather into one tear. It saved him from death, but could not heal the wound on his cheek, completely. That is what happened."  
  
"You are, probably the most interesting speci. . . .er, person I have ever met. No one I know has had a past like that!"  
  
"More less a future, eh?"  
  
"I don't understand. You know your future?"  
  
"A little. In there, I saw Nibelheim, my hometown, burning. Someone, I do not know who, said that I would become a great General in SOLDIER. In a dream, I was frozen, and a piece of materia was pushed through me by a boy with the same spiritual feeling as Zack. The ice never cracked, and I couldn't open my eyes. I could feel everything, though. I was. . . .missing, you could say, the lower half of my being."  
  
"Oh, yeah, that's a nice thing to look forward to. Being sliced in half!"  
  
"No sarcasm, please. This is really my life."  
  
"I wonder if there is a logical way to prevent it."  
  
"Well, we might as well ponder it later. Dawn is approaching, and we all need our rest."  
  
**********************************************************  
  
The fire. "Jenny?"  
  
The girl looked up from the shadows. It was no longer dark, but the camp site was the same as before. The girl had silver hair, like Sephiroth. Her eyes were a magnificent silver-blue and her skin was light, nearly white. The base color of it was sky blue and made her eyes stand out against her black outfit. The jacket she wore was only down to her waist, and her black slacks were wrinkle-less. She stood with her hands in her pockets and her feet were planted firmly in the red soil.  
  
"Sephiroth! I haven't seen you in a while. Is that guy still bothering you?"  
  
"What? Oh, him. Yeah, every so often. Mainly it's my life bothering me."  
  
"How so?"  
  
"Killed my best friends, got knocked out by unknown forces, nothing out of the ordinary."  
  
She smiled. "No, I suppose not."  
  
"So, what is my company to do tomorrow. We would like to sign up for the military forces, but I want to avoid my father at all costs. I hear that we must go to the headquarters, but there is no hope of avoiding Hojo there."  
  
She laughed. "You have been listening to roumors, huh? Well, to sign up, you need to go to the Wall Market in sector 6."  
  
"The Wall Market? Isn't that a ways away?"  
  
"You're in sector 5."  
  
"Really. . . . I hear that on the edge of Sector 5 flowers bloom in abundance along side a waterfall. Is that true?"  
  
"Yes. That is a garden. A garden for the priests of a near by church."  
  
"Well, I'd rather not get into a history lesson. I know a lot about Midgar already."  
  
"Oh, noon, ALREADY?!"  
  
"Noon, huh? I had better wake up. See ya!"  
  
Sephiroth turned and walked away.  
  
*********************************************************  
  
Sephiroth's eyes opened slowly. Light streamed in through an open window. The young man groaned and sat up. His new room was cozy. It was small, but nice. It had a desk and chair made of polished oak and a bed, on which the teenager sat. Above the desk was a mirror with a silver rim. This rim was designed into leaves and vines. He stood, pulling on his slacks and boots. He combed out his silver hair and blinked his groggy, green, eyes were reflected clearly through the beautifully designed mirror. He sauntered over to the door then opened it. He slowly walked into the main room to check on his companions.  
  
As he walked into the room, the first thing he noticed was that Zeki was still asleep, drool dripping off the side of his mouth. Sephiroth then looked around. His eyes wandered over to the chair Zack had been on. It was EMPTY!  
  
Through a doorway on the opposite end of the room the warier saw a spiky-haired figure stretch, yawn, then wince as pain shot through his face. The boy attempted to smile, but it came out lop-sided.  
  
Seph relaxed. Zeki blinked. He then wiped his wet cheek and smiled groggily at his companions. Wrapping his jacket around himself, he stood.  
  
Lenoa walked up behind the darkly dressed youth and slipped past him  
  
"I was wondering when you would wake up. You are just in time for lunch."  
  
Zack winced at the thought of Lenoa's food.  
  
"And what's THAT supposed to mean?" She became suddenly cross as she placed her hands on her hips.  
  
Zack carelessly shrugged. "Absolutely nothing."  
  
Zeki closed his eyes. "Other than he's afraid of your cooking."  
  
The scientist was shocked. "I would love to see you do better!"  
  
Zack squinted and held up his finger. "You know very well that I can't let people eat my food, safely. They would die before they found out how horrible it tastes."  
  
"So don't dis my cooking. You should be lucky to get anything at all."  
  
They ate in complete silence, for fear of upsetting Lenoa. Then they gathered around the door.  
  
"So, I guess that we're off to Shin-Ra HQ." Zack smiled.  
  
"Wait," for once Sephiroth spoke without being spoken to. "You can't sign up for the military forces at the head quarters. There was a riot and they transferred the post to the Wall market in sector 6."  
  
Zeki looked up from packing. "Do you know how to get there?"  
  
"All we need to do is head through this sector, heading south. We should come across it."  
  
Lenoa held something out to Sephiroth. She smiled.  
  
"Here, it's a map of Midgar. I hope that it will help you on your journey."  
  
Zack looked at the scientist. "So, you're not going with us?"  
  
The youth shook her head sadly. "I wish I could, but I must finish this manuscript. But I'll meet you there. It's about time that I persue my dream!"  
  
Zeki smiled and nodded. Even though he had only known her for a short while, he felt as if he would be seeing her a lot in the future. "We all should. Dreams are an important part of ourselves. I learned that when I was wandering between li. . . .Er, I mean, Between Nibelheim and Costa Del Sol. . . .Heh, heh, heh. . . ." The boy scratched his head and shrugged. He then sighed.  
  
"Well, we need to go. See ya in Wall Market!"  
  
Zack then walked out the door, hands in pockets. His sword had been carelessly buckled against his back once more. His wardrobe had been replaced with a spare set. This one consisted of a pair of black slacks and a, tight, charcoal-colored, T-shirt. His brown combat boots had been buckled onto the owners feet once more.  
  
He then realized that no one was following. He placed his hands behind his head and sighed. "C'mon! Let's mosey!"  
  
Sephiroth nearly fell over in amazement. "'Let's mosey'?!?!?!?!? Who says THAT anymore?!"  
  
"Er, um, well. . . .Let's go!"  
  
Zeki heaved another deep sigh and grabbed the Scythe of Truth (his staff) and followed.  
  
*********************************************************  
  
A few hours later, they found themselves in the Wall Market. From every corner the sound of bids and drunken laughter came. Music radiated from every store to create the loud hub of Midgar, the Wall Market.  
  
Zack covered his nose to block out the horrible stench of beer and sweat. He sneered in distaste. Sephiroth rubbed his sore eyes and sighed. Zeki, on the other hand, was acting as a small child would at a fair. At times like these Seph wondered if Zeki was no more than a small child in an teenager's body.  
  
Zack grabbed a hold of the collar of Zeki's jacket and dragged him away from the Honey-Bee Inn. Seph walked towards the two.  
  
"Zeki, that's not what we are here for. We want to sign up for the armed forces so that someday we might be accepted into SOLDIER. The post is right over there." Seph jerked his head in the direction of the sign-up area. "It's either now or never. Make up your mind, because soon, you will belong to Shin-Ra."  
  
Zeki stopped struggling to listen to the speech. "Whoa. . . Kid, that's the most you've ever said to us."  
  
Zack carelessly shrugged. "Well, other than telling your story, that is."  
  
Seph heaved a deep sigh. "That isn't the point. We need to sign up, and I mean now!"  
  
Zeki's eyes widened, "He has the attitude for a General already."  
  
After he had said his last comment, Seph had turned to head for the booth. Once he heard Zeki, he stopped dead in his tracks. General. . . .  
  
  
  
Note: heheheheheheheheheheheheheh. . . . This story is a blast to write! The only problem with the future part of the series is that, I don't know anything about the War of Wutai! If any one knows anything about it Please E-mail me at zekirocks@yahoo.com I would greatly appreciate it! I hope that I will have many fans in the future! Oh, I will not have a link to a page about me because I would rather not put my name out on the net. So I will tell a couple things now. I am not yet in high school and I use my cousin Rashell as a prop to see how blood spurts out of a wound. (j/k) My fave chara is not Seph, but Clod-boy. (Cloud) Poor Seph. . . Anywayz, the reason that I began writing this story is I would like to inform people of the past of FF7. I do not think that either Tifa or Aeris could be paired with dear ol' Clod. Do not push me on that one, because I will give a long list why. I also do not pair him up with Yuffie. That would be plain wrong! Um, I have many pictures that I have drawn and I plan to get them up soon. If anyone wants to send fan art, E-mail me, and please put it as an attachment. Well, that's about it! I guess I had better let you go so, jaa ne!  
  
~Haily 


	2. The Truth of Friendship

Part 5  
  
My life will no longer belong to me once I take this step. Am I ready to take the chance?  
  
Sephiroth's hand hovered over the form that would bring him into the armed forces. Fool! I have come too far to give up now! He signed his name on the final line of the form.  
  
; is that really how I wish to sign my name? I don't want to be related to him in any sort of way. Why must he haunt me through name and mind?!  
  
Zeki looked over Sephiroth's shoulder as he scanned his brain for another way to state his name.  
  
"Sephiroth. . . .so, that's what your name is. Good. Now I won't have to continue calling you 'Kid,' I should've known that your father would choose a cool name like that."  
  
Zack's face was completely serious. He had already signed his form and was just about to be sent with the next group to receive his dorm and uniform. "Sephiroth, the road to god hood. What was up with your father anyway? He seems a little, odd. What am I saying? He was the famous Professor Samuel Hojo, wasn't he?"  
  
Sephiroth had walked away from the booth, handing over the form. He was now standing with Zack and Zeki. He tensed. Zack wasn't even there when he had signed his name, and anyway. . . . I wrote that in foreign symbols! Can Zeki.... No! Of course he couldn't! He was just a stupid kid.... Of course so am I.  
  
"Zack? Could you tell me how you found out my father's name?"  
  
"You told me."  
  
"I told you?"  
  
"Yes, in a dream. Long ago before I ever met you. In that dream I was in a field of snow, waiting for someone. A man with the uniform of a general walked up to me. He had long silver hair and green eyes that shined in the darkness of the night. His skin was as pale as the snow around us. 'Zack,' he said, 'You need to find my father, Professor Samuel Hojo. He will give you the power that you need.' The only difference between you and him was that his voice was not the calm one that comes through your mouth, but the one of a madman. His eyes had gleamed crazily as he walked away. In the dream I was sure that he was going to kill me then; He didn't. A voice echoed through the field. 'My name is Sephiroth,' then it began to rain cherry blossoms. They sliced through my body and the color of blood seeped into the snow. When I awoke that morning I refused to believe what the man had said. Then, many years later, I met you. I knew that your name was Sephiroth and that you were the one who told me that. I didn't want to tell you until I knew you a little better." Zack lowered his eyes to the ground.  
  
"Zack.... that wasn't me."  
  
The boy continued to stare.  
  
"That is the insane man that lives within me. At times he takes over my body as he did when that table was thrown at you. Whatever happens, don't listen to him. Promise me, both of you."  
  
Zeki nodded, but Zack did not respond. Sephiroth grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him.  
  
"Promise me!"  
  
Zack glared into the green eyes in front of him. "Perhaps I will, in time. I will trust what I see. Maybe this other guy is, in reality, more sane than you. I will not promise."  
  
"Then, please, don't trust him. He tells lies. He hurts those that I love. I don't want to see either one of you dead by his sword. I fear that one day he may become strong enough to control me. He may grasp you to him for his plans."  
  
"What are his plans?! If he lives in you, you should know! What does he plan to do to the Planet, or us?!"  
  
"I.... I don't know."  
  
"Then perhaps you should find out."  
  
Zeki stood, staring at the two, not sure what to do. Lenoa ran up behind him.  
  
"Hey, Zeki! What's up.... Oh my gosh...."  
  
Pain shot through Sephiroth's brain. He let go of Zack's arms and fell to the ground. He reached for his head to calm it. His hair fell in silver strands to the ground around him, landing like a metallic pool. He closed his eyes, trying to concentrate on the agony inside him. From his kneeling position, he was flattened against the ground by some invisible force. His hair looked like a wing against his right shoulder. His face went pale and blood, once again ran down it like liquid garnet. The last person he saw was his own mocking face looking at him. His eyes held fiery insanity beneath the surface.  
  
_________  
  
No. Why am I back in this cursed place?! The room was dark, all except the fire burning in the center, as always. And, as always, Jenny stood beside it. Her silver hair reflecting the green light. Her eyes smiled, but her face was grim.  
  
Well, that was odd. She walked forward, Sephiroth stepped back.  
  
"What do you want with me this time?"  
  
"I would like to tell you of the dangers that lay ahead."  
  
"And the best way to talk to me is to get the insane me to knock the sane me out, right?"  
  
She shook her head. "I am sorry to say that I had no part in that incident. That man is getting out of hand. I will have to speak with him as soon as I am done here."  
  
"I already know the dangers of what await here in the armed forces. I am sorry, but in this case, I can help myself."  
  
"Fine. If you don't want my help, so be it." In a giant flash, the makou green fire engulfed her. The room seemed to shine brilliantly, but as quickly as it had come, it vanished; Jenny was no more.  
  
A loud laugh echoed throughout the room. It turned to a snicker as the man stepped from the shadows. His eyes gleamed the colour of makou and his skin was as pale as the newly fallen snow. He wore the same black cloak and boots as he had on their first meeting. There was a slight difference to his appearance, though.  
  
Sephiroth studied this for a while but came to nothing. He felt a slight disturbance on his back. The smell of feathers and blood. He heard a rip as his own black dress shirt fell to the ground. A wing folded around him. Soft and white against the darkness. This seemed to fill him with the power to voice above the opposite's loud snickers.  
  
"What do you want with me?"  
  
The man turned his icy gaze on Sephiroth. "What do I want with you? Nothing."  
  
"So why are you here? Just to laugh at nothing?"  
  
"Heh, of course not. I only come somewhere for a reason."  
  
"What reason is that?"  
  
"To control your body."  
  
"Heh, I am sorry, that is not a gift that I can give."  
  
"Are you sure?"  
  
"Yes. Even if I could, I wouldn't."  
  
"Are you sure?"  
  
"I am a spirit apart from you. I can make my own decisions without your influence, so yes. I am sure."  
  
"OK. I will need to kill you, then." A black wing unfolded from his body. It absorbed all light that it came in contact with, leaving the whole room in darkness. Sephiroth's eyes shone in the ebony surroundings. The General snickered.  
  
"Can you make it in this darkness?"  
  
"I always have." The young teenager replied as he spotted the other glowing green beacons. He drew his sword. The Murasame felt light in his steel grip. It shifted, then began to glow a pale silver. Sephiroth smiled.  
  
"Sephiroth! Wake up! C'mon kid! Er, I can't believe that it happened AGAIN. Why does it have to be him? He has been through enough."  
  
Heh, Zeki. Will you always be so caring? I hope that you keep your promise. He raised his sword. Stay calm kid. Concentrate.  
  
"Your friend out there is calling you, boy. Why don't you go back to him? He'll miss you when you're gone."  
  
"Heh. Sorry, I don't intend to loose this battle. I haven't lost one yet."  
  
"Don't get cocky."  
  
"Who ever said that I was cocky? I just have high goals."  
  
"You won't have any goals once you are dead." The General inched forward, his boots not making a sound on the ground. The air was tense and cold.  
  
"Who said that I would die?"  
  
"I did." He jumped into the air, attempting to slice the young soldier in half. Sephiroth jumped out of the way and into the air. Another wing seemed to sprout, but nothing was there, except air. He was able to fly. He soared towards his opponent at a deadly speed, his sword ready to impale his enemy. He lunged, the General blocked, then whirled into a crescent. Sephiroth stopped it in front of his abdomen and brought it up over his head. The General used this move to his advantage and put his weight down, forcing Sephiroth to the floor. The young boy pulled his right leg out from under him and hooked his foot around the opposition's ankle. With enough pressure and speed, he knocked the older man off balance.  
  
The General's eyes gleamed with fury. He jumped back to his feet as the younger boy brought his sword under and up, knocking the Masamune from the other's grasp. With one quick flick of his wrist, he slashed the officer on his leg, making it so he could not walk.  
  
"Heh, looks like the first blood's mine. I win."  
  
"Boy, this is the battle of life! You do not only play for the first blood! Kill me! I deserve it! Kill me now, or I will kill you later."  
  
Sephiroth raised an eyebrow. "Sorry, I don't like to waste. I gotta go. See ya!"  
  
_________  
  
Sephiroth opened his foggy eyes to see Zack staring at him worriedly. Sephiroth felt a twang of pain as he remembered the fight they had earlier on that day. He looked away.  
  
"You're not dead. It's amazing. You aren't dead."  
  
The young boy looked into the deep hazel eyes of his friend. Confusion flooded over him.  
  
"A man had come up to you and.... You are alive! That horrible.... I am so sorry, I didn't see him coming.... He just...."  
  
Dark bags hung under Zack's teary eyes. He hugged Sephiroth and cried into his shoulder.  
  
Sephiroth patted him on his back. He let his friend sob there for a while. Once the tears subsided into slight sniffles, he let go.  
  
"I'm sorry. There was a man.... He had the look of insanity. His eyes were purple and his skin was so pale.... He wore a dark cloak of black and it hung over his face. His hair was silver, just like yours.... He looked nothing like you, but.... in a way he had the same feel.... I can't explain it. In his hand was a metal staff, a violet crystal was set beneath the glossy cover. It had one sharpened point. He whacked you upside your head, then you fell to the ground. The man took the pointed end and stabbed you in your heart.... I was so afraid that I would loose my best friend.... for the second time...."  
  
"How long have I been out?"  
  
"About three months."  
  
"How is the training going?"  
  
"Hard, but what do you expect? On the time that we have for ourselves I came here to keep an eye on you."  
  
"Did anything happen while I was out?"  
  
"You were engulfed in fire. You didn't scream, but it was not the blue fire that you had before. It was green, makou green...."  
  
"Jenny...."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Nothing. Just one of the people living inside of me."  
  
"What happened to the General?"  
  
"You know about that?"  
  
"I saw the whole battle in a dream last night."  
  
"How were you sure that it was happening?"  
  
"The guy that visited me the first time was there. The guy who said that I needed to find Hojo."  
  
"I'm sorry, no. I don't know what happened to him. If I go back to sleep I probably will."  
  
"Yeah, try to take over your brain. You know.... I think that I could tell him apart from you anyday. He seems so.... crazy."  
  
"Heh, and I have to live with the guy. Man. Did you see anything else?"  
  
"A girl. She had silver hair and her eyes were a beautiful silver- blue. Her skin was pale and her face were grim, though her eyes smiled."  
  
"Did you hear what she said?"  
  
"To you or to the General?"  
  
"She talked to the General?!"  
  
"Hey, hey! Don't work yourself up!"  
  
"Did she or did she not?"  
  
Zack sat in silence, afraid that Sephiroth would overdo it and pass out again.  
  
"Answer me!"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Did you hear what she said?"  
  
"No, I'm sorry. It is as if she had the conversation locked."  
  
"That little.... Can you describe the look on her face?"  
  
"It was one of absolute fury. It was as if the General did something that she didn't approve of. After she yelled at him for a couple minutes, he shrugged and walked away."  
  
"I have to go." Sephiroth began to rise off of the bed that he had been sitting on.  
  
"Oh no you don't!" Zack pushed him back down again. "No matter what you say, you need more rest. Your wound has only begun to heal. You had a concussion from that blow and had a serious loss of blood. If you loose any more you will shrivel up like a prune. Now lay down and get some sleep. I have to go back. I will bring you something to eat. Stay there and don't wander off. I hear that Hojo is around, so keep your head."  
  
"Woah, you are acting like my mother, or what she would have acted like had she not have died."  
  
"Yeah, well...."  
  
"Hey, does Zeki know about any of this?"  
  
"No, I thought that you might have wanted to tell him."  
  
"Keep it a secret for now, OK. Don't tell him that I have come back around. He will loose it worse than you did."  
  
"Yeah, he has only been sticking to his training, never stopping. He might just die if he hears that his nearly dead friend is back. I understand your logic." Zack turned for the door.  
  
"Zack?"  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
"Thanks."  
  
"No problem."  
  
"Go on now, else you will be late."  
  
"Right."  
  
_________  
  
After Zack left, Sephiroth got up out of bed and looked in the mirror hanging above the desk. There was a large wound on the left side of his chest. It had scar tissue around it, showing slight signs of healing. It ached to breath and at times he had to gasp to get any air, and that hurt him like hell. He sat in the desk chair.  
  
"No wonder Zack didn't want me to start training. Who was that guy, anyway? It wasn't the General, he has my eyes. I have no enemies that I know of. Why would anyone want to kill me?" He sighed, then winced as pain shot through his chest. Come to think of it, his head hurt as well. "Arg! That damned bastard. I hate him now. The stupid...."  
  
Zack walked through the door to see a shirtless Sephiroth go pale with pain.  
  
"You painful little ass! I told you to get some rest! Ah well. Here, let me help you back...." He let Seph put his weight on him as he hobbled back to the bed.  
  
Sephiroth groaned as he lay back down.  
  
"So, what did you do while I was gone? Other than not listen to my advise."  
  
"I didn't listen because you didn't tell me how bad it was!"  
  
"I tried.... oh well, there is no reason for us to be fighting."  
  
"What did you bring?"  
  
"Hm? Oh, umm grewel."  
  
Sephiroth grimaced. Zack just smiled and laughed.  
  
"No, we had chicken broth and cornbread with a side of corn, but I didn't think that you would be able to stomach the corn or the bread, so I brought saltine crackers and some herbal tea. The cook and I have become quite good friends, actually. She is caring and lets me make some special orders for you so that you will get better faster. I warn you, the tea cleans you out."  
  
"What did you feed me while I was out?"  
  
"Monkey guts."  
  
"I'm serious, dragon breath."  
  
"Soup, tea, applesauce, liquids. Also the doctor had been giving you nutrients through an IV"  
  
"Zack, what is the cook's name?"  
  
"Elmyra."  
  
"Thank Elmyra for me please." Sephiroth's voice faded as he passed out.  
  
Part 6  
  
"Estuans interius ira vehementi  
  
Estuans interius ira vehementi  
  
Sephiroth!!  
  
Sephiroth!!  
  
Estuans interius ira vehementi  
  
Estuans interius ira vehementi  
  
Sephiroth!!  
  
Sephiroth!!"  
  
It's a song....  
  
"Sors immanis et innanis  
  
Sors immanis et innanis  
  
Estuans interius ira vehementi  
  
Estuans interius ira vehementi  
  
Sephiroth!!  
  
Sephiroth!!"  
  
They are saying my name....  
  
"Veni veni venias  
  
Ne me mori facias  
  
Veni veni venias  
  
Ne me mori facias  
  
Veni veni venias  
  
Ne me mori facias  
  
Veni veni venias  
  
Ne me mori facias  
  
Glorioso generosa  
  
Glorioso generosa  
  
Veni veni venias  
  
Ne me mori facias  
  
Glorioso generosa  
  
Glorioso generosa  
  
Veni veni venias  
  
Ne me mori facias  
  
Glorioso generosa  
  
Glorioso generosa  
  
Veni veni venias  
  
Ne me mori facias  
  
Glorioso generosa  
  
Glorioso generosa  
  
Veni veni venias  
  
Ne me mori facias...."  
  
'Come come oh come, do not let me die?' 'Glorious and noble?' I am none of those things. Why are they chanting that? Wait.... 'Burning inside with a violent anger....' That's the General.... 'Fate monstrous and empty....' could that possibly be.... what I will come to see? A fate monstrous and empty? And my own name.... Sephiroth. The tree of life, the road to godhood, it's as though my father planned for all these things to happen to me. Why did I have only one wing? It is like the fate that I.... or the General reach for is the road to godhood, but it is a fate monstrous and empty. 'Come, come, oh come, do not let me die....' Those must be the people that I swear that I will protect, but will not be saved.... but why? They will think that I am glorious and noble. I already know that I will become a great General, whether I like it or not. I must fight for those who will die. I swear that I will never hurt unless I must and I will not shed blood that does not need to be. I will help the people of Midgar, maybe even the Planet. I shall do as much as possible before the General takes over....  
  
_________  
  
Zack shook his head. Why did that boy never listen to him? He could be so stubborn at times. The teen dabbed a cold cloth on Seph's forehead to cool his raising fever. He sighed. I guess that I will have to stay in here for the night, again....  
  
Man, I wish that he would just listen to me. He has to be an Aquarius. Apparently he thinks that he can get along by himself today. Well, he might have something that he is brooding about. I'll ask him when he awakens. Zack dipped the cloth into the bowl of ice water on the table beside him. Sephiroth twitched as though he had heard a sound that struck him as important. His green eyes opened slightly.  
  
"Zack?"  
  
The boy looked at him.  
  
"C-could you help me sit up?" His voice was a hoarse whisper. "I need you to help me with something...."  
  
Zack lifted Sephiroth up so that he could lean against the wall.  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"Help me.... defeat.... the General.... he.... will kill.... so many.... innocents.... Don't.... let me.... turn.... into.... him...."  
  
Zack nodded. "I will do what I can."  
  
"Thank you.... He spills blood.... to quench.... his sword's.... thirst.... It is like.... a vampire.... It drinks.... the warm.... blood of it's.... victims.... I will one day be one.... I will fall to his.... strength...."  
  
"Don't say such things. He wouldn't be so cold as to kill you when you are this ill."  
  
"Are.... you.... sure? I think.... that he would.... That's the kind of man.... that he is."  
  
"Go to sleep, Sephiroth. If you need me, I will be right beside the bed. You have a high fever and you may become delerious. Be carefull. The General may strike then."  
  
Sephiroth nodded.  
  
Zack lowered him back into bed and covered him with a light blanket, then continued to dab the cloth on the teenager's forehead.  
  
"Good.... night.... Zack.... thank.... you...." Seph closed his eyes and drifted into a fiery slumber.  
  
"Good night, Sephiroth."  
  
_________  
  
The next morning, Sephiroth was not awake. Zack shrugged and left as soon as he was called for. The nurse would continue her duties today. Zack had to continue his training. The only hard part of today that he would have to face would be hiding the secret of Seph. He was a strong guy, he pulled out of a coma and still held his memory. The wound was deep and was only now beginning to heal. The nurse said that once the healing process began, it would move along quickly. It was just getting it to begin that was the problem.  
  
Sephiroth should be fine now that the process has begun. Zack thought as he ran to the obstacle course for the morning run. He found his place in the lines. He stood between Zeki and Lenoa. The blue uniforms were uncomfortable and didn't fit very well.  
  
Zack shifted once as the officer walked in. He was one of the ugliest people that Zack had ever seen. He was extremely tan and had long bleached blonde hair that was orange at the roots. His eyes were bloodshot and an ugly shade of olive. A long pale scar waved across his face. It ranged from his right eyebrow to his left ear. He was blind in his right eye and his hands were bony and long. He wore the uniform of a Lutenant. It was a black camofloge design and cut like the ancient army uniforms. He wore ebony boots and a crimson cloak that clasped at the neck with a golden strap. His feet were too large for his lanky body and his noze was long and narrow.  
  
"Soldiers! Attention!" All the members lined in front of the Lutenant saluted him, then stood at attention.  
  
"Today we will do the everyday drills and then run 50 extera laps around the course for Bahamut's outburst yesterday. Then, we will line up swiftly and silently for the morning meal of grits and orange juice. Eat your fill, you will need it. We will be the last to eat, so the quicker that you finish, the quicker you eat. Now MOVE!"  
  
They all ran to the course, each trying to beat the other. Soon the competition was between Zack and Zeki. They were the last ones of each team to still be qualified to continue. The air was tense as they took off. Weaving between flags, crawling beneath nets, climbing wooden walls, and swimming across a swift current. They were on the last lap, Both fighting for the lead. They were climbing a steep hill on which the finish line awaited. Zack stumbled and lagged behind as Zeki sped ahead. After regaining his ballance, Zack jumped high into the air, over Zeki and made a wild dash to the finish; Zack had won.  
  
Zeki glared daggers at the young boy. His aqua eyes held a fury that could barely be contained beneath the surface. His face could nearly be read as "I will kill you." Why had Zeki changed so much? Maybe he was turning cold, like Sephiroth was seen on the outside. No, he was just being his depressed bastardized self. It was like Zeki now had a heart to kill Zack just because he had not promised Sephiroth before he got put into a coma.  
  
But no one knew that that was going to happen. No excuse, Zeki wanted to shed some blood, Zack's blood. How was Zack going to get him back to normal? He had already raked his brain for answers. Even if Sephiroth was suddenly better, Zeki wouldn't go back to his normal self. Maybe this is his normal self....  
  
They ran this course the rest of the times and by the time the troop was done each one of the soldiers seemed nearly dead from exhaustion, other than Zack, Zeki, and Lenoa. Zeki was too busy making icy faces at people as they glared at him or looked at him in total disgust. Zack was worried about whether the nurse had found out that Sephiroth was awake yet or not, and Lenoa was smiling at everyone. What an odd group they were.  
  
Zeki smiled crazily to the man who passed as they entered the cafeteria. He had short cut blonde hair and goggles that sat on top of his head. He looked about 16 or so. He carried a wooden spear in his hand. He wore a navy denim jacket and a white scarf. His pants were khaki and his boots were dark brown. His face went grim as he saw Zeki's odd look. He didn't even seem to notice Zack. It was as if he was a lone shadow without a person to follow.  
  
Lenoa stood in line, ignoring the glances towards her. Zack wasn't surprised that the guys were drooling over her. She was, after all, a very attractive young lady. Why aren't I one of those guys? Was it because I had that accident a few years ago? No, I would have died if it wasn't for Lenoa. I hadn't seen her in years, but then I met Sephiroth and I had to meet up with her again. She has helped me on many such occasions. I have no right to invade her privacy. He continued to stare at the food that Elmyra had given him. He waved thanks to her as he passed.  
  
And what's up with Zeki. I'm glad that I didn't tell him, he might have gone insane.... like the General. How can I help Seph?! That is a battle between him and the General. I can not interfere in any way. I can't enter his brain. Maybe.... if I can see his battles and dreams.... can I stop them?  
  
_________  
  
The nurse came a few times during the day to take Sephiroth's temperature and give him some fresh stuff in his IV. At these times, the young teenager had lost consciousness. His mind buzzed with ways to defeat the General during the final battle. Every once in a while, the man who delivered the blow flashed across his mind. It was like he had seen the man before.  
  
Breathing was hard, but through the day he regained his strength. He still could not stand as he had the first day and often drifted off into sleep. His face began to regain color and his eyes began to focus. The wound on his chest went numb from time to time, but these times were blessed relieving times for him. He felt a large pressure, but barely any pain. He was grateful when Zack finally returned to the room.  
  
"So," Sephiroth rasped, "how was your day?"  
  
"Weird. Zeki seems to get closer to the line of insanity every day. It's like he is stumbling down a hill towards his breaking point."  
  
"How was the training?"  
  
"Rough. Zeki burst yesterday in the Lieutenant's face. Because of him, we had to run 50 extra laps around the obstacle course."  
  
"Is it day still, or evening? I can't tell."  
  
"Oh, it's about 8:00 PM."  
  
"Thank you. What did you do today, other than run?"  
  
"We practiced drills with a rifle and battled each other in fencing."  
  
"Who did you get paired up with?"  
  
"Zeki. That kid wants to kill me, I'm telling you."  
  
Sephrioth shook his head. "I don't think he does. It might just be a longing for decent competition. That happens quite often with new bees."  
  
"'New bees?' If we are new bees, then what are you?"  
  
"I am not exactly new to the program. My father tests the soldiers for certain things, like the possibility of joining SOLDIER."  
  
"Yes, this is true. I guess we will just have to see what happens. If I die I will be very upset."  
  
Sephiroth attempted to laugh at this comment, but was only able to smirk.  
  
"Do you think that you can eat? Or must I feed you again?"  
  
"Heh, my energy reserves were used up yesterday when I went to go check my wound. I have been trying to take it easy, but I can't really get used to laying around. I'm used to roaming and fighting living trees and the sort."  
  
"So in other words...."  
  
"I need to be fed."  
  
Zack laughed then brought out a bowl.  
  
"What are we having today? If it's baby food I will be very upset."  
  
"Sephiroth, it is winter. Do you think that I would feed you something cold? No. It's microwaved baby food."  
  
Seph glared, jokingly.  
  
"Heh, it's chicken noodle soup and hot cocoa. Also a side of mashed potatoes and gravy. Oh, and I hope that you like crackers. You will have a lot of them in the weeks to come."  
  
Sephiroth moaned. "How long will it take for this to heal?"  
  
"I don't know. I could ask Lenoa."  
  
"How is she?"  
  
"Man, in a crazy world, she is the only person that has stayed the same."  
  
"I would tell you to say 'hi' for me, but then she might tell Zeki."  
  
"I highly doubt it. Zeki doesn't talk to anyone these days. He only laughs at air and grins menacingly at trees. He glares daggers at nearly anyone. He nearly made one of the astronauts-in-training piss his pants at lunch. And he freaked ShinRa's secretary out during practice. Each day he gets hotter to the young girls, and more psychotic to us! It's crazy!"  
  
"Calm down Zack. I don't want you hyperventilating on me. Then who would be worrying over me? If Zeki is acting like that, I highly doubt that it would be him."  
  
"What will we do if he snaps?"  
  
"I will find something to help him, even if I have to find a cure to insanity myself."  
  
"And if you can't do it?"  
  
"I know someone who could, but she won't do anything until he does snap. That's just the kind of girl she is."  
  
_________  
  
Weeks passed and each day Sephiroth became a little stronger. He was soon able to feed himself and walk for long periods of time. He still wouldn't let Zack tell Zeki. He didn't want Zeki going crazy until he was completely well. Little did he know that he wouldn't have to wait long.  
  
Breathing soon became easy once more and He began to practice swordplay in his room.  
  
Strange, it's like I was never knocked out at all. He sat down on his bed and decided that tomorrow would be that dreaded day that seemed so far away. He would leave to begin training.  
  
The day passed and Zack came.  
  
"Hey, Seph. How are you today?"  
  
"Heh, pretty good. You?"  
  
"Tired. Thank goodness! Our troop gets a day off tomorrow. I will probably spend it with you, here at the base."  
  
"Zack? I am not staying in the room tomorrow. I am going to join the ranks."  
  
"Are you sure? How is your wound?"  
  
"Healed. The last of the scar tissue folded over and it sealed. I can practice swordplay as if I was never out and I can do anything that I could before. I have all my strength back, so you don't have to worry about me on the field. Really, what we should be doing is figuring out a way to tell Zeki and have him break without him killing every person in sight."  
  
"We could try to get him into an ally way without him noticing."  
  
"Nah, I don't think that will work. Maybe we could lock him in the bathroom."  
  
"What if there was someone else in there, or someone really had to go?"  
  
"Yeah, I see your point."  
  
"We could can him."  
  
"Heh, imagine his face when we cured him, then told him.... No, we can't do that to Zeki, of all people. We need to make it so that he doesn't see me until you guys have him trapped."  
  
"Hmmmm.... On each of our days off, he goes to the bar."  
  
"Hey, wait! tomorrow is my birthday! Grrr.... we'll put off the celebration until he is sane."  
  
"No! Wait! We could use that to our advantage."  
  
"How?"  
  
"There is no bar on base, he goes to the one in the sector 2 slums. Not many people go there. They think that it is an ugly dump that sells cough syrup with a small amount of alcohol, so they work their way up to sector 4. The only person in there is usually Zeki and the bar tender. We could get up early to get you there so that Zeki won't see you. You can hide someplace while I tell the old guy. I would then sit down and wait for Zeki."  
  
"And where does my birthday come in?"  
  
"A giant cake comes out of the kitchen, carried by Lenoa."  
  
"We need to talk to her. Does she know that I am awake?"  
  
"No, the nurse keeps everything quiet. Anyway, since no one is ever in the bar, Zeki will wonder whose cake it is. Especially when it doesn't come to him. By that time, I will have locked the door. The cake will go to a dude in a black trench coat and weird green eyes. You will, of course, be wearing a hat. When the cake comes to you, take off your coat and hat, so that you can enjoy the cake. Zeki will then go insane when he sees you up and walking about."  
  
"Are you sure that will work? The thought stream of Zeki didn't seem quite the same as it had been last time I saw him."  
  
"You forget, he is nearly insane."  
  
"True. We need Lenoa. Could you go get her for me?"  
  
"Sure. I'll be back in a little while." Zack turned and walked out the door.  
  
Sephiroth sighed. Tomorrow would be his 14th birthday. Why did he have to subject himself to such torture? He wanted his friend back, the only way to do that would be to make him go insane. He shook his head, letting his silver hair wave back and forth. Zeki had been his friend since the beginning of his journey.  
  
To think, that wasn't very long ago. But he was still there at every turn, trying to help. Now Sephiroth would pay him back by granting him insanity. Would Jenny help him after his out burst? That was a while ago, she should have cooled down by now. Then why hadn't he heard from her?  
  
_________  
  
"Jenny!" Sephiroth was walking around the campsite, trying to find his female look alike. "Jenny! Come here! I need your help, your expertise! Please, help my friend!"  
  
The young boy fell to his knees. "Please, I would do anything to help him."  
  
A large flash of makou green blinded the young boy.  
  
"Anything?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"I can do nothing for Zeki until he has lost it."  
  
"You have heard the plan. I know that you have. Please, once we do our part, can you help him?"  
  
"I will do what I can."  
  
"What about the payment?"  
  
"Don't worry about it. Go, Zack will soon return. You mustn't let him know that you have been speaking with me."  
  
_________  
  
Zack entered the room just as Sephiroth opened his eyes. Behind him was Lenoa, her eyes filled with worry. Seph was laying on his bed. He swiftly closed his eyes so that Lenoa wouldn't notice. The two walked over to his bed. Lenoa's hands clenched around two dog tags around her neck.  
  
She sighed and looked at Sephiroth.  
  
"Zack, he looks a lot better than he did last time I was here. He has regained his color and his wound is healed." At this point Sephiroth still wasn't wearing a shirt. He didn't want it to look suspicious.  
  
She reached down to stroke her friend's face. Sephiroth reached up and held her hand in his. She gasped as his shining green eyes opened.  
  
The teenager sat up in the bed and released Lenoa's hand.  
  
"He is a lot better than you thought."  
  
Sephiroth stood. "I'm sorry to have frightened you. I was just resting a little."  
  
" 'Just resting a little?' How long have you been awake?!"  
  
"Mmm, about.... Zack how long has it been?"  
  
"About 5 weeks."  
  
"5 WEEKS?! You two didn't tell me this! Why?!"  
  
Sephiroth shook his head, not expecting this reaction from a doctor. "We were afraid that you might tell Zeki."  
  
"NO one talks to Zeki anymore. He's too crazy."  
  
"Shh, calm down, Lenoa. Someone might hear you...." Zack looked like he just realized that this was a bad idea.  
  
"Lenoa, We need your help. Tomorrow, we are heading to the Sector 2 bar. We will talk to the bar tender and let him know what we are doing in the morning. We are planning to get Zeki back, to make him sane again. I have a way to do that. Now, here's the plan...."  
  
  
  
  
  
Part 7  
  
Lenoa stood at the entrance to the bar kitchen, her hands on her hips and her eyes skeptical.  
  
"Guys, are you sure that this will work?"  
  
Zack nodded. "Of course I'm sure. Hah! Who is the mastermind now? Lenoa can no longer push me into the well!"  
  
"Er, Zack, we aren't kids anymore. When was the last time that I did that?"  
  
"Um...." He began to count on his fingers, "about, five years ago?"  
  
"Bingo! Now, if we are going to do this, let's get it over with."  
  
"Um, Zack?"  
  
The dark-haired boy turned to Sephiroth.  
  
"Why must I wear this uncomfortable thing?"  
  
"It isn't uncomfortable. You just aren't used to shirts. And it isn't a 'thing' it's a trench coat. You are supposed to be in disguise."  
  
"How many other people in Midgar have silver hair and green eyes?"  
  
"You should have thought of that yesterday. Now just GO he will be here soon."  
  
Sephiroth nodded and sat down at his designated chair. He crossed his arms over his chest and began to act as if he was dozing. He leaned back in the chair so far that it touched the wall behind him. He pulled his hat over his eyes and sipped at the sake in front of him. The door opened and Zeki sat down on a bench at the bar.  
  
"Good morning Zeki." The bar tender jumped over to him, thanking the Cetra that his best customer had entered. The sooner that he came, the sooner the kids could get rid of his madness. "What are you to have today?"  
  
"Shut yer f***n' mouth and get me some mai tai."  
  
The man nodded and scurried off. Zeki looked to his left to see Zack sipping on a cup of sake. He sneered at his past companion. Sephiroth shifted in his chair. Not too much, for if he did he would surely fall out from tenseness. He didn't see why he had to do this. Hurt his friend to help him? How was that possible?  
  
Zeki soon became impatient with the man.  
  
"Hey! OLD MAN! Hurry up! I'm not sitting here for my health, y' know! I came to drink and get hangovers! So hurry up so that I can get started!"  
  
The bar tender ran out, bottle of mai tai in hand he placed it in front of the fiery-haired young soldier. Zack tapped his fingers on the counter. When was Lenoa going to come out?! It seemed like she was taking forever!  
  
As if those slight tapps summoned her, she walked out of the kitchen.  
  
Zeki looked around, confused. He then shrugged and began to chug the alcoholic beverage straight from the bottle. Lenoa walked over to Sephiroth, and the boy took off his jacket and hat as he sat up in the chair. On his face was the expression of "Oh, my! How did you know?!"  
  
Zeki looked at Sephiroth, then blinked. Zack walked over to the young soldier and began to cut the cake. Zeki, then did the most unexpected thing.... He laughed.  
  
The boy arose from his stool and danced over to the table. He stopped right in front of Lenoa.  
  
"You," he began, slow and quiet, "are.... the nicest woman that I have ever met. No," as Lenoa was about to reply, or scream, Zack wasn't sure which, Zeki covered her mouth with his hand. "Don't say anything, or else your friend here will be.... how should I put it? Killed is such a lame word.... mutilated.... murdered.... eliminated.... wiped from existence.... choose one, I have more. You were kind enough to wait for me to get here before you began the party." He pulled out a gun from his jacket pocket. "Well, let me say that it has only begun."  
  
He slid his hand away from her mouth, and her lip just quivered. No one had expected this. He walked over to Zack, his gun pointed at his head. "And, you, dear Zack.... You were planning this the whole time. It isn't nice to keep secrets. You wanted me to go insane, didn't you? That hurts me so much!" He wiped an imaginary tear out of his eye. Zack stiffened. "Well, I have a secret that I have been keeping from you! I already am insane!" He began to laugh, but a few seconds later stopped abruptly. "No, wait. To follow the theory that all mad men claim that they are sane.... I'M PERFECTLY NORMAL!" Saliva flew onto Zack's face. The boy calmly wiped it off. Zeki turned the gun point on Lenoa. Her silent sobs seemed to annoy him.  
  
He turned his fiery gaze to Sephiroth. "Aw, look how weak she is. She is crying from fear. Why don't you help her? She wants you to." Zeki threw the cake off the table and held the gun to Seph's temple. The boy's face was only inches away from Seph's own. "Heh, now you.... YOU are the worst of us all. You hold a secret that you won't tell anyone, except the little voices in your head. In that way, you are just like me. I could kill you right now, I do need your power. There are two ways that I can get it."  
  
There are only two things that I can think of that he could do now. Kill me, of kiss me. I hope that he does neither.  
  
"You shouldn't hope anything, boy! I could do either to you now, I could do both. I choose.... my way." Instead of doing the two things Sephiroth had thought, he leaned over and licked the teenager. Sephiroth didn't even flinch.  
  
"One question, Zeki. How can you get my power by licking me?"  
  
"That's the beauty of it you see! I can't!" He then kissed the boy.  
  
Seph, of course, struggled. He did NOT like the feeling of this! His mind exploded with power. It thought the same thing, over and over and over again. Whywhywhywhywhywhwhywhywhywhywhywhy?  
  
Zack truly didn't want to look, but the brilliant flare of green light shocked him. It covered the whole bar and Sephiroth was at it's source. It made Zeki fly across the room. All the air around the boy seemed to be full of power. Power that Zack had never felt. Sephiroth's hair flew straight up in a wind felt only by him. The floor of the bar indented into the shape of the Tree of Life, the Sephiroth.  
  
The color faded and he was lifted into a silver breeze. He hovered there, unconscious. His hair around him seemed to form a shimmering wing on his right side, and one that absorbed all light on the left. His skin turned pale as a bright purple light enveloped him.  
  
Even through the depths of his mind the three could hear him scream. It curdled the blood in Zack's veins and Lenoa attached herself to his arm, then backed away from him, seeing Zeki's murderous glare.  
  
A blinding flash of red light simmered, then there, where Sephiroth had been stood a woman with Seph's long silver hair and pale skin. Her eyes were cold as ice and she was clad in leather from head to toe.  
  
She thrust her hands out in front of her and murmured "Venir compagnon, limites ton pouvoir. Envoyer il vers moi." She then cupped her hands as if receiving something. Into the darkness the beauty faded, clutching her precious prize to her body.  
  
Zeki coughed. "Come companion, confine thy power. Send it to me...." He then collapsed onto the floor.  
  
Seph was there on the table where the cake had once been. The bar was no longer a bar. It was a dump.  
  
Lenoa sniffled. "I don't get it.... he wasn't supposed to do that."  
  
Zack walked up to her. "C'mon man! Pull yourself together! You are the only one who can help them. I am not even strong enough to do that. I don't have the training and skill."  
  
"Now, tell me, Zack. Who kept their head in that crazy thing called a fight? I know that I certainly didn't! So stop complaining. You should be glad that Zeki didn't kill you."  
  
Zack sighed and ran into the back room to apologize to the Bar tender about the mess.  
  
_________  
  
Zack bowed again to the man. "I am really very sorry, we did not expect that to happen. I thought that I knew the boy's mind frame. Apparently I was wrong."  
  
The soldier got thwaped in the head with a wooden cane. "You had better be sorry! The only problem with sorry is that it doesn't un-do do the damage! You will have to work to get the money so that you can repair the destruction that you did with your own two hands. I built this with my own two hands, you can repair it!"  
  
Zack bowed and got hit. Bowed again and got hit, this pattern continued for many long minutes, it was as though Zack wanted this punishment.  
  
What am I thinking?! I have been in the army too long! At this point, Lenoa walked in.  
  
The old man hit Zack again. "You see, you should learn responsibility and find a young girl to teach you how to be calm and peaceful, like that young girl over there." He pointed to Lenoa. The old man then opened his eyes. They were the same silver-ish violet as Lenoa's.  
  
"Grandpa?"  
  
"Lenoa?"  
  
The short, bald man ran forward to hug his granddaughter. She knelt down and cried for a few moments.  
  
"Were you that young girl in the fight?"  
  
With her arms still around the small man, she nodded.  
  
"I am so sorry! I haven't seen you in so long that I didn't recognize you." He grabbed her shoulders and pushed her back. "Here, let me see you. My, you sure have grown and blossomed into a beautiful young woman. Hmm...." He turned to Zack, "You don't seem like such a bad kid." He turned back to Lenoa. "I am now allowing you to date." He then began to walk away.  
  
"Grandpa! This is Zack! My best friend! I can't just...."  
  
"Technicalities, technicalities...." His voice trailed off as he left the room to check on Sephiroth and Zeki. His bald head gleamed in the light streaming through the window. One hand was resting behind his back, the other gripped his wooden cane.  
  
Lenoa sighed. She looked at Zack who was facing the back wall.  
  
The girl blushed. "Do you think he was serious about the...."  
  
"Forget about it." Zack brushed off his pants. "He was probably just joking. Pay the old man no mind." (Zack always calls Lenoa's Grandpa "Old man.")  
  
Lenoa turned to the door to follow her grandfather.  
  
_________  
  
Lenoa leaned over Zeki. "Grandpa? Do you think that he will be OK?"  
  
"I don't know. We will just have to wait and see."  
  
A figure at the other end of the room shifted, then sat up. Green eyes opened as he leaned against the wall behind him. Sephiroth's shirt was torn and ragged. The hem of his pants were just as bad, if not worse.  
  
"Heh," his voice was tired and hoarse. "Where have I heard that before?"  
  
The doctor smiled to see that at lest one of her companions was going to make it.  
  
The boy winced as a burst of pain shot through his head. He slumped over, grasping his head. He shifted, trying to make the agony subside. Through his mouth a roar erupted. A blue haze covered his vision as he was taken back into his mind. He was, once again, going to see what was to be.  
  
_________  
  
Zack fell to the ground as if a force pushed him to it. His head throbbed with a dull pain. He felt as though he had been brought into another time to see the future or past. He reached for his head to calm the pain's fury. He collapsed as another wave of torture overtook him in one blow.  
  
_________  
  
A girl in a pink dress knelt on an altar, waiting for an answer from the Planet. She had been praying all day, and still she had no answer. Still, she was quiet and patient with her mentor. Ever since she was little she had been able to speak to her.  
  
Her hair hung in a high ponytail. A pink ribbon was tied into it, a white piece of materia set into the knot. Her red jacket kept her warm in this palace of ice. Aeris knew that this was the best place to communicate with the Planet. She had to ask for help. A meteor was flying towards them at a radical speed. As the last Cetra in existence, it was her duty to protect the people of her land, and even the land herself.  
  
It was to be a large duty, but one she had to stand up to. Her mind was traveling, she had to concentrate, or else she would never be able to hear the Planet's wise words before she died.  
  
Aeris did not see or hear her companion coming up to her. He raised his sword as if it was not of his own will. As it rose above his head, he struggled to get control of his body before he.... The sword began to fall.  
  
A voice called his name. He stepped back from the Cetra, looking as if he just woke up from a horrible nightmare. He shook with fear. Tension filled the air. What had been controlling him? He glared at nothing. Sephiroth was here; He was the only one with that power. A figure dropped from above, sword unsheathed. For a moment, the young man thought that it had to have been himself.  
  
That was until he saw that the man was clad in solid black and silver hair flew behind him. Sephiroth jumped from above, impaling the last hope of the future. No blood seeped from the wound. The Masamune made sure that not even a drop was spilled.  
  
Aeris's green eyes opened as though to say, "I'm sorry. I should have told you...." Her face went pale as she slipped from the blade and fell to the icy floor. The General stepped back from the girl. Cloud ran to her, he propped her up onto his arm. Tears ran down his face as he fumed his fury on the murderer.  
  
The General just shook his head in amusement. He laughed at the young man. His green eyes gleamed with insane fire.  
  
Cloud told the older man a numerous amount of times to shut up. There was no reason for him to be lying anymore. "We will never hear her laugh, or cry again. She will never get angry and she will never smile. What are we to do now?"  
  
The General continued to laugh. He told the boy that he couldn't possibly have feelings, he was a puppet. He then jumped into the air, dropping something as he flew off.  
  
_________  
  
Zack awoke in his own room. His mind ringing with the remnants of the dream. What had it been all about? That girl seemed familiar, but he had never seen her. She looked quite a bit like the little girl in the library. She had those same eyes, and her hair.... but it couldn't possibly have been her. Zack rolled over to see Zeki staring at him.  
  
Zack jumped and scooted towards the wall. His eyes widened in fear. His hair seemed to become more spiky in his adrenaline rush. Zack had not been expecting to see Zeki at this time. Wait, what time is it? He looked at Zeki. Now is not the time for one to be checking one's watch. He shifted uncomfortably.  
  
Zeki's eyes were deep in despair. His face was pale and dark bags hung under his eyes. Aqua stared into hazel for long moments before someone spoke.  
  
"Y.... you're alive...."  
  
Zack looked at his sane companion skeptically. "Wha'?"  
  
"You passed out in the kitchen of the sector 2 bar.... I am so sorry for what I did.... It's just like I...." He lunged at Zack.  
  
The boy tried to scramble away, but then realized that the teenager was merely hugging him. Zeki began to sob into his friend's shoulder. My, where have I seen this before? He patted the boy on the back. Once Zeki's tears subsided into slight sniffles, he let go.  
  
Zack smiled. "So, how long have I been out?"  
  
"Not long. Only about a day."  
  
"What time is it?"  
  
"Oh, it's about 8:00 PM."  
  
Zack laughed. "Man, I'm hungry."  
  
"We are having chicken broth and cornbread with a side of corn."  
  
"Heh, the exact same...."  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
"Oh, this is nearly the same conversation that Seph and I had the day that he regained consciousness. He scattered it throughout the evening, though. How is the Kid, by the way?"  
  
Zeki looked to the floor.  
  
"Zeki....?"  
  
"He is still out. Lenoa is watching over him. He passed out the same time as you. He was back for a few seconds, or so Lenoa's grandpa says, then he clutched his head and screamed. They heard you from the kitchen doing the same. Seph passed out then, and so did you."  
  
Zack shook his head and heaved a deep sigh. "I am sorry, Zeki.I know you feel responsible, but when you look at it from another angle, it was my own."  
  
"Your own?" Zeki mumbled. He lifted his eyes to look at his companion. "No, Zack. I have looked at it from every angle, but still I see no one else to blame."  
  
"So place the blame on no one. There is no reason to blame yourself. You had gone insane because of my stubborn-ness. If I would have just said 'I promise' to him, none of this would have happened."  
  
The door swung open and the argument was abruptly cut off by two figures in the doorway.  
  
Zeki's head shot up with a start and a large grin spread across his pale face. "Seph!" was the only word there spoken. Zeki charged for the boy and latched himself around his neck.  
  
At first Sephirothseemed shocked with the sudden burst of emotion, but he soon warmed up to it and embraced Zeki to calm his shaky nerve.  
  
Loud sobbs soon began to errupt from the boy's mouth and silent tears ran down Sephiroth's cheek. The pain was equally shared between the two.  
  
Zack felt a dampness on his own cheek, but did not bother to wipe it away. Instead he looked to the other figure and smiled at her. Lenoa rolled her teary eyes, but did not utter a word.  
  
As everything quited down, Zeki began to mumble apologies for what he had done. This led into another fit of tears. Sephiroth smiled and pat him on the back.  
  
Lenoa glided over to sit by Zack on the bed and watch the touching spectacle. It wasn't every day you got to see Sephiroth Hojo cry in that hauntingly silent way.  
  
Note: Woah.... That didn't take very long for me to write! The other part took about a year! Too much writer's block. I don't think that anybody has read this yet, so I am hoping to get an E-mail from some once they do. Oh! My cousin Rashell is turning my stuff into mangas! Sugoi, ne? Also, in the last one my note was signed '~Neki-chan" I, Haily, am Neko-chan. This is a nick-name from My Sailor moon Fan-Fic called Solar Stars. I hope I don't get any mis-understandings! Well, Jaa!  
  
~Haily Firestone Rocksmith 


	3. Demon of Darkness

FINAL FANTASY VII : Hidden Secrets  
  
Months had passed since Zeki's return to sanity, and in those, many things had changed. The lieutenant had seen Sephiroth's power with a sword and had him advance to the next level in that section of training, and again he was master of those moves as well as the saber, katana, scythe, gun, and martial arts. In his secluded life at Nibelheim, he had learned that the wise speak not a word, so he never questioned his commanding officer and thus was considered the best soldier outside of the SOLDIER program. Through all this he kept silent about his past and turned from all conversation involving the science department.  
  
He raised through the ranks, never meeting his equal in combat, but this made him feel all the lonelier, for he could never reach his full potential. He sped through the grades until he reached the rank of colonel. That was when the president called him to his office.  
  
Part 8  
  
Sephiroth stared up the final staircase before he reached the top floor. He thought it stupid to place the president's office up this far, but in a terrorist attack, they would have to pass through more floors and more guards to assassinate Shin-Ra. He shook his head and began to climb.  
  
I wonder what he wants to see me about. Did I do something wrong? Something that would cast me from my rank? I worked hard to become the youngest colonel of the history of the Planet.  
  
Slowly he strode up the red carpeted staircase and knocked on Shin-Ra's door. He stood at attention and waited for a reply.  
  
"Check in with the secretary. I'm busy."  
  
"Sir, it's Colonel Sephiroth Hojo here to reply to your call."  
  
"Oh, Sephiroth! Come in, come in dear boy!"  
  
"'Dear boy...?'" Sephiroth mumbled under his breath. He raised his gloved hand and pushed open the cool steel door. He strode in with the heir of the military, put his hand over his heart and bowed deeply. I hate doing this. Why do they have the armed forces bow? Shouldn't they just salute, or is that just for SOLDIER?  
  
"Please, colonel, sit."  
  
"Thank you, sir, but I prefer to stand."  
  
The president sat behind a great oak desk and was clad in a red suit that he seemed to be bulging out of. He was beyond the point of being fat and his skin was nearly as pale as what was left of his hair. His eyes bugged out of his head with a grotesqueness Seph could barely stand... and those eyes... they were black beads! The ugly man rest his head on his folded chubby hands and smiled.  
  
"Ah, the kinesthetic type. At least relax a little, I deliver no bad news to the son of my greatest scientist."  
  
Is that what he thinks of me as?! Hojo's son?! That stupid fat man... he'll get what's coming to him... one day. How could such a rude man ever make it this far in life... by the looks of things he seemed to have lived a very long life... either that or the victory cigars have gotten to him....  
  
To show that he had been paying attention, he shifted his weight to his left foot and let his hands drop from behind his back.  
  
The president leaned back in his chair. "I have been following the progress of the training of you and your friends Zeki Bahamut, Zackary Reyes, and Lenoa Ikuto. They all seemed to be having quite a simple time making it through the ranks. Zack is a Captain, and Zeki and Lenoa are Lieutenants. You four have made it very far in a few months and I am extremely surprised that you defeated all my officers in combat when they are two or three times older than you."  
  
"Thank you for your compliment, sir."  
  
"I would like for you and your companions to join my Supreme Order of Loyalty that Derived In the Early Regiments."  
  
"I am not sure that I understand, sir...."  
  
"The Elite Forces need you to join them Sephiroth. With you in my forces, the army will be stronger than ever, and where is a leader without his followers? You will make the strongest team in this companies' history."  
  
"T-thank you, sir."  
  
"You are dismissed, Colonel Hojo."  
  
With that, Sephiroth turned and walked from the president's office. He closed the door behind him and he leaned against it to catch his breath.  
  
D-did that just happen?! I'm going to be in the elite forces?! I'll finally be able to put my talents to good use! As he continued to think, he strode down the stairs and passed a man not much older than he with long black hair, green eyes and a red stone set into his forehead.  
  
Sephiroth finally believed that he was going to be in SOLDIER and a grin spread across his face. He then began to dance through the hall.  
  
The man that had passed him laughed and said "No matter what you do, colonel, you will always be a mere child."  
  
Sephiroth stopped and turned to the TURK. "Hey, Tseng, go fall in a makou pit. Don't judge what you don't know about."  
  
"C'mon man! What did the Prez say to you?!"  
  
"I'm joining SOLDIER!!!"  
  
"YAHOO!!! GO SEPH!!!"  
  
"PISS YOUR BRAINS OUT, TURK!!!" Again the dancing began, this time both of them were disco-ing down the hall. "Hey, Tseng, who's the child now?!"  
  
"Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah, staying' alive!" Tseng stopped as if he had just realized something. "VICTORY BEER!!!"  
  
"YEAH!!! CALL ZEKI!!!"  
  
A few hours later Sephiroth, Zeki, and Tseng were sitting in a booth so drunk that their eyes crossed.  
  
Zeki stood up and yelled into the back room. "Old Man Ikuto! Zack needs another bottle of Sake!"  
  
A hoarse reply floated in. "Do you have anymore money?!"  
  
Zeki laughed and replied, "No! I've been broke since the beginning!"  
  
Lenoa's grandfather burst into the room. "What did you say you drunken oaf?!"  
  
Zack smiled a great intoxicated grin that spread from ear to ear. "Don't worry! I have enough money for ALL of us!"  
  
Tseng put his arm around Zack's shoulder and giggled. "You're my best friend..."  
  
"Unfortunately I left it back in Gongaga!" At this comment the whole room exploded into laughter, except for Lenoa's grandfather who stood glaring at the whole group.  
  
His granddaughter caught his gaze and laughed, this time at him. She walked over to the man, crossed her arms and made a serious Indian face. "Why you be so heap glum? Great Red-haired and Big Hedgehog bein' join great battle place with Metal Head and me. We bein' heap big celebrate. Me pay for beer."  
  
"What?! I would rather shoot myself than make you pay for their alcohol!"  
  
Again Lenoa laughed at her grandfather's lovingness.  
  
"I'll just raise the price of the Red Mary to pay it off...." He mumbled as he walked into the back room to grab another bottle of sake.  
  
Cold hands reached out from behind her and covered her eyes. A fake woman voice cooed from behind her. "Guess who."  
  
The man behind her pinched her nose shut and began to ask, "Can you breathe, can you breathe, can you breathe?"  
  
Lenoa reached back to feel the hair of the person. It was silky smooth to the touch and was cold. Very cold. A chill ran through her. The hands were cold as well, almost to the point of freezing. She spun around to find herself looking oddly into bright green eyes that were not the least bit intoxicated, but filled with a sense of caring and love.  
  
Sephiroth searched the girl's gaze and saw only surprise, shock, and intense fear. He dropped her gaze and turned away regretting ever sneaking up behind the girl. From the booth Zack blinked his hazel eyes and whistled. Zeki smiled and yelled "Get it on!" as Tseng made rude comments about the scene.  
  
"Shut up, Lieutenant!" Sephiroth yelled to the fiery haired boy who merely smiled in reply.  
  
It was Zack who said "Naw, Seph. Can't do that! We're all in the same league now! We're ALL third class SOLDIER!"  
  
"Heh, heh, heh... not until we take the test we're not!"  
  
Tseng's face went stern. "Would you all stop bickering!"  
  
As Sephiroth walked out the door he heard the TURK yell, "Hey! Old Man Ikuto, Where's me sake?!"  
  
"Stupid drunk," Seph muttered to himself, "How can he drink that stuff? It's disgusting."  
  
Soon he was out of the sector and in the sector 7 slums' train graveyard. He was staring into an empty trash can charred with the fire from the train crashes. His green eyes illuminated the darkness and Sephiroth wondered if he could ever be more alone. Could he ever be able to retreat into that darkness? No. His eyes would always be there to light the way.  
  
"I am such an idiot. How could I ever think that Lenoa cared for me in that way? I'm her superior officer and she knows that a relationship is forbidden... but truthfully... I don't care... I don't care about all these rules... all these restrictions... Of course even without them I would still be without her... no one could love a monster like me. I'm a demon. A freak. I should just take my sword and..." He unsheathed his sword and watched the light reflect off of it. His eyes were shown in that long black katana. Red gems gleamed in the hilt of the blade.  
  
He shifted his feet then shot around and threw his sword at a black figure lurking in the shadows behind him. "Be gone! I care not who you are or who you claim to be! I am Colonel Sephiroth Hojo and I would like to have my privacy!"  
  
The figure had dodged his attack and now stepped out into the lamp light.  
  
"I am sorry, sir , but that is one thing that I will not, nay, cannot grant you."  
  
He turned back to the black abyss in which he had been gazing. His soul was burning with a great fury, but he had no reason to feel so... so... vehement. He knew that he could not voice his feelings in any way for he feared the reaction that would be reflected in her resplendent eyes. So, to ease the strange feeling in his heart he merely said, "I- I don't want to speak to you."  
  
Appalled by Sephiroth's words, Lenoa was speechless. For that moment lost, she wanted to kick herself, because on her walk to the graveyard, she had been thinking up answers to all possible scenarios... or so she thought. So she did the most casual thing she could think of.  
  
Crossing her arms the girl said, "Well, you seemed to want to talk to me pretty badly back there in the bar."  
  
Sephiroth shook his head, letting his long metallic hair sway in the breeze. "It was the heavy air that made me act that way," he replied as if it was the most normal thing in the world. For him, though, this was a first. He silently cursed himself for the cliché' and mentally blamed this scenario on too much television. ((anime IS educational!))  
  
"Heh, no heavier than it is at the base."  
  
He turned with great fury and hatred for himself at the comment that he knew that he would have to make. "Lenoa, what do you want from me?! If you want to know why I acted that way back there, I have no answer! Or at least none that I dare to speak. At times you seem so foolish as to when one wishes to converse. I guess all in all you are just a silly girl in a uniform."  
  
"Oh, if I'm no better than the girls from where you came from, you are no better than the schoolboys in Mideel. Reducing to name-calling is not what I came here to do! I came here to help you. It seems that you have a lot on your mind, and talking is the only way to help. Though you may not wish it, it is something that must be done!"  
  
"Talking wont help any of the things on my mind and even if it could be helped with speech, I would not come to you." I am such a damn bastard. I would not be in the least shocked if she walked up to me and slapped me. God knows I deserve it.  
  
Lenoa dropped her arms and smirked. Now, this was one of the scenarios. "Then where would you go? To Zeki or Zack? Oh, I know, you would go to Tseng or maybe even the president, just to say that you loved me. Well, that would not help the situation at all, would it?" Sephiroth stood in complete shock. "For all you would know I would not have the slightest suspicion as to your feelings for me, but that show in there gave it away. I spot things very quickly with the eyes of an eagle. That is one of the reasons that I made it this far."  
  
There was a behemoth reverberation shaking the ground beneath them in huge oscillations. Lenoa was nearly knocked over with the force of the tremors. Sephiroth looked down at the bag hanging from his belt. He fumbled with the tie as he looked up repeatedly to check if the monster was in sight. Once the items were separated from him another tremor his and the bag was knocked from his hand. He cursed as he thrust his foot into the loop at the top of it and threw it towards Lenoa.  
  
She caught his movements and caught it just before there was yet another quake. She spread her feet apart to balance herself and began to dig through all the items. Finally she pulled a large bracelet out of the bag. It was golden and held many earth toned stones. She slipped it on and kissed it. "I love you Tetra Elemental."  
  
Lucky thing I equipped my beloved escort guard. Sephiroth then patted the golden armlet that was hidden by his uniformed shirt.  
  
From out of the ground something exploded. The air filled with dust and gas fumes. Rock fragments flew every which way and when the dust settled there was nothing but a gaping hole in the ground. Sephiroth slowly drew the Murasame to defend himself in case of an ambush.((Murasame is his first weapon)) Lenoa reached for her throwing knives and stopped.  
  
"Sephiroth! The enemy is invisible! Look carefully and you can see a slight dis-"  
  
"Yes, Lenoa I see it, but now is the time to test those skills you were talking about!"  
  
Part 9  
  
Zeki stood amidst the chaos and swayed with the strange balance. The ale was good, but he needed some fresh air before he collapsed. He attempted to shove his hand in his pocket and missed a few times before he succeeded this difficult feat. Lifting one foot, he swayed backwards. He shook his head and put it back down. Zeki then tried to raise the foot opposite of the one before and miserably failed in his second attempt to reach the door.  
  
Opening his eyes once more he found himself staring at the ceiling sprawled over the chair that he had been resting in most of the evening. A thought then occurred to him. H-- how can I be tested for SOLDIER if my body is intoxicated and I am suffering from a hangover? Damn... should've thought of that before hand... why do they allow fourteen year-olds to drink? Here it was that his head began to throb and the familiar ache in his stomach threw itself into the midst of an impossible battle.  
  
It's amazing how pain makes your legs subconsciously move.  
  
The room sped by as Zeki's hand clasped his mouth. Now, at whence he was bold enough to look at his surroundings, he found himself leaning into a trash can, staring into the ruby eyes of an espepsia-covered lizard. In fury the beast jumped up and grabbed Zeki's nose. Teeth met flesh and then nerve as blood ran from the tip of the young man's left nostril. His eyes crossed in sudden pain and a hand was placed over his stomach as it lurched in retaliation.  
  
He dropped to his knees(lizard still attached) and placed his burning forehead onto the cool metal of the trash can. He closed his eyelids and mumbled. "My dear, dear trash can. How I am thankful for your cool touch and..." he sniffed the air, "unique stench. I... I believe that love has struck me."  
  
A Nibel wolf walked out of a blue light and faced the tortured young man. He blinked his yellow eyes and cocked his head at Zeki.  
  
"Young man, why do you speak to yourself in such a fashion? Darkness has not overcome you... but your two friends are a different story."  
  
Zeki shifted his gaze to the beautiful silver and black wolf. "D-- did you just speak to me? No, it couldn't have been you; your a wolf and wolves don't talk."  
  
"You are mistaken, sir. I did address you. Although it was I who asked the first question. Would you be kind enough as to answer it?"  
  
Zeki flinched at the light emanating from the being. He tried to pry the lizard from his nostril, beginning to get nervous. This creature before him was so beautiful it could make your eyes hurt. "Um... I... Er...."  
  
"Drank too much...?"  
  
Letting go of the lizard, he cast his aqua eyes to the ground. "Yeah."  
  
The being nodded, a human-like gesture and then sat. "I have been sent to watch over you and your comrades. At the moment Lenoa and Sephiroth are in great danger. You must help them. I can disguise myself as your pet, but if at any time you need me, I will become a powerful summon. All you must do at these times is say the words ' Wolves' Cry' and I will assist you, whether you need to be healed or destruction of an evil that has befallen you. This is one battle I cannot assist you on. At the moment my powers are drained from the journey to arrive at your aid. So, I will create one who will assist you. We must make haste. Climb onto my back, young mortal and I shall carry you into the darkness."  
  
"'Carry you into darkness'?" He shook his head, the lizard growing bored with this speech released it's grasp on Zeki and fell into his hand. " I don't know if that will be a good idea...."  
  
The wolf stood and turned his back on the young man. "You must decide now, young Bahamut, help your friends in a battle that they can never possibly win on their own, or let them fall into a pit of darkness and eternal despair?! Time is running out. Your decision is futile to the future of your planet!"  
  
Zeki stood, pocketing the lizard, his head throbbing in pain. "If I can make up the things that I did long ago, I will come." He walked forward and straddled the wolf, grasping the fur around it's neck.  
  
"Very well, then. Hold on tight." The wolf then plunged forward into the light so pure that Zeki's fogged mind became perfectly clear. His intoxication was wiped from his body. His fingers began to tingle and cold wind blew into his face, blowing his hair in all directions. The body beneath him shuddered and then turned sharply, the light fading into the wolf.  
  
Zeki dismounted and turned to the creature. "What should I call you?"  
  
He cast his head down in exhaustion. "Riku." Presently he collapsed onto the dusty ground of the morgue which lay around him.  
  
The young man kicked the skull at his feet and began to run, not realizing the pocket of his pants were beginning to bulge.  
  
*******************  
  
The creature before them swayed at some unknown force as it stood, ready to attack the mortals standing before it. Past the trains of the hole of hell a great holy force was speeding ahead, it was Riku the knight of the summons, but his power was quickly fading as the beast's own was growing and pulsating. At this rate it would be able to crush the knight in no time flat, but first it would have to rid itself of the bearer and the humans before it. Especially the silver-haired one.  
  
It reared it's head and put forth a demonic scream with more force than the beasts of this area could ever withstand. They were weaklings, all of them. It could look at them and they would writhe in terror and die in their tracks.  
  
The ground began to shake and crumble beneath the weight of the beast and the humans. Sephiroth spread his feet apart and glanced at Lenoa, not wishing any harm to befall her. As the earth below them gave way he sheathed his sword and thrust himself in Lenoa's direction, knocking her out of the claws of death, but in doing so he doomed himself to falling helplessly into the flames of Hell.  
  
******************  
  
Zeki stopped at the top of a cliff that had given way only moments before. Beside him stood Lenoa, her face pale and her amethyst eyes full of regret. For all they knew the evil was gone and Sephiroth ad died in the collapse. Riku, however knew what this battle was to do to his young masters and mistress. He just hoped that they would be able to take the SOLDIER test the next day. If they could not then his meddling in these children's destiny had gone too far.  
  
His duty as a summon he had to protect those chosen ones who were destined to a life full of battles and hatred. They had to keep their masters on the side of good, else the dream of returning to the Planet was forever fogged by time and their own hatred.  
  
Zeki shook his head once more, then tore off his leather jacket. He turned to Lenoa and smiled. "Lenoa, I may not return from this battle. If I didn't care for you as much as I do, I would ask you to come with me. I don't wish you to be harmed in any way, else my efforts to protect you would have ended in vain."  
  
Tears began to stream down Lenoa's face. "No, Zeki... you can't. I won't let you die. I.. I have to go in with you!"  
  
Again Zeki shook his head. He stepped forward. "I'm sorry, Lenoa" The man then grabbed her shoulders and kissed her. Their lips entwining in an eternal exchange of affection. Their auras mixed and their souls locked. Tears silently streamed down Lenoa's face. She knew that she would loose one of the two men that she had ever cared for in her time with Shin-Ra. She broke free of the kiss and wrapped her arms around Zeki. His warm body filled her with a longing to stay with him and fight by his side, but she thought that would never be possible.  
  
Zeki returned her hug and kissed her on the head then backed away. "I.. I must go. I love you, Lenoa." Turning from the girl he loved, he sprang into the black chasm in which the greatest kind of evil rested, holding Sephiroth forever in it's poisoning claws.  
  
Watching him disappear into the abyss, she felt as though a violent force was growing inside of her. She loved these two too much to just let them die without her say in the matter. Fighting the urge to kill something she climbed into valley of doom. She felt that her death lay there beneath the rock and sewage.  
  
She growled to herself, trying to think of a summon that would carry her into the chasm without causing a further collapse. Looking down off of the ledge deep within the ravine. Her mind hummed as she skimmed over many thoughts.  
  
Lenoa listened to the crashing below her and the screams of her comrades. She was just able to make out the phrase "Eternal Burning." She had never heard of this summon before but that didn't matter at the moment. She reached into the item pouch and drew out a materia orb of crimson and slid into her shoulder pad. Making sure all her armor was secure, she turned to the opening far above her and whispered "Phoenix Flame" readying herself for the deep rumbling of the earth, but it never came.  
  
She shook her head and sighed, sliding the orb from her armor. She dropped it into the bag and reached for another orb. Sliding this one into the blade of her knife, she yelled "Silent Squall!" and the familiar rumble of flapping wings and the flash of lightning. A Giant green bird soared down to it's Summoner, lowering it's head to her. Lenoa smiled and replaced Terra Elemental with the Bolt Armlet and stepped onto Quetzacotl's head and sliding onto it's back, holding onto it's slim neck as they soared to the bottom of the perdition.  
  
Bright green caught Lenoa's eye as Quetzacotl lowered her a safe distance from the battle ground. She turned to find where the flash had come. Her eyes skimmed over a river of makou. It ran freely like water, but the stench proved how toxic the chemical was whether in liquid or gaseous form. The girl turned to the summon and nodded her thanks. It, in reply, let out a beautiful song as it flew back to the above world.  
  
Covering her mouth, she stepped towards the substance. She took out a vile from her coat and dipped it into the liquid. Surprisingly, it melted at contact. Lenoa's eyes opened wide in shock. She shook her head and turned away from the toxins.  
  
She took count of the materia and equipment she had, every once in a while switching out a weapon or piece of materia. Once she was finished checking her inventory she stood, jotting notes down in her mind. Her total came to Ziedrich armor, equipped with mastered Elemental Earth combination, Phoenix, and Quadra magic Leviathan combination. Also a gift from her grandfather, a lance made by a Cetra and blessed with the power of water. Holy Javelin would be very effective against the ground based enemy that dwelled down here. It had Alexander and Bahamut equipped as well as Full Heal and a mastered Life materia. Just for luck she tied a black Ribbon into her long hair to hold it back.  
  
Pulling out her lance she turned to the makou and whispered "Tital Wave." Gazing out over the river she saw the giant cerulean water serpent's fin skimming over the glowing liquid. It's head shot out of the makou as it turned it's eyes towards her, waiting for it's summoner's command.  
  
In the summoner's tongue, Lenoa quickly explained what was going on with the Makou monster and Sephiroth. It nodded and replied. "Skani kabite higano. Suitenk." It raised itself out of the glowing substance and waited for Lenoa to mount. She once again nodded her thanks and jumped onto the serpent's back. It instructed her to grasp the spikes protruding from it's back. Lenoa followed the creature's request.  
  
Leviathan swerved and skimmed over the substance at a quick pace, being careful not to knock it's Summoner off balance. The girl upon it's back had a long journey ahead of her and the least it could do was help her in her times of need.  
  
Rounding a corner, Lenoa found herself staring at a bloody tomb. Bodies of children and adults alike lay dead upon the cavern floor. Some of which were members of her own brigade such as Sarah, a brunette with lively yellow eyes and a sense of fun and innocence, Kristian, a blonde boy with light green eyes and held a cocky disposition but was kind to the people he was aquatinted with, and Nagusame, a boy with spiked black hair and the amber eyes of an owl, he was quite friendly and loved animals. The Major said that he was useless when it came to fighting, but he knew his herbs and spices. On long trips made by the brigade, Nagusame would make delicious meals from edible herbs roots and animal flesh and meat. He was a talented young man, but a week before he had disappeared. Now Lenoa knew where to.  
  
She shook her head and tried to hold back tears of regret. The fury from before was now replaces with an irresistible sadness. All of the other bodies were either rotting, mutilated, or merely bones and flesh. The smell of rot and dust filled the air and the taste of copper filled the girl's mouth. These were people she had known and people she had sparred with in training. Now all of them were beyond her reach in mortal life. She would never see them smile of hear them laugh or even smell their dirty gym socks. They were drug into the hands of death, and soon so would she.  
  
Looking back up to face the evil before her she decided that thinking about her death would only make it worse when it came. Lenoa made herself concentrate on the battle of evil. The slow-going of Leviathan wasn't making her feel any better, for she knew that the summon felt the darkness overpowering it. Lenoa leaned over to the serpent's ear and asked if it was faring okay. It nodded shakily, but continued.  
  
The path began to curve and there a shock of evil hit Lenoa's mind. She felt helpless to the darkness and the only way to end the torture would be to give in. Lenoa shook her head and let out a long, skull-piercing shriek. It reverberated off the stone walls and echoed throughout the cavern. The Ribbon slid from the soldier's hair, leaving her helpless against the darkness.  
  
A blinding pain filled her soul as she forced herself to sit up once more. Fumbling through her item bag, she fought the gloom piercing her mind. She reached for the closest Ring available and slid it onto her right middle finger. To her surprise her mind cleared and she was able to focus once more. She glanced down to the ring and smiled fully. Upon her finger sat a silver annulus engraved with faerie protection spells and minute stones of dark green and black were set into the rim. Kissing it she became fully aware of why Seph had not let Zeki junk it when we found it. The Fairy Ring really was helpful in times like this.  
  
Returning her attention to what lie ahead, she noticed that Leviathan had slowed to a stop. She leaned forward and asked it why it had stopped and it merely turned it's head to the left. Lenoa, taking the hint, turned to follow Leviathan's gaze and saw Sephiroth surrounded in a pool of his own blood, his eyes blindly staring into the ceiling. Half-way draped over him was Zeki. His skin was deathly pale and a large crack allowed blood to ooze freely from his forehead. Their clothing was ripped and tattered revealing deep wounds from the battle before.  
  
Jumping from Leviathan's back, she rushed to the benumbed forms. She cursed beneath her breath and glanced at her mental notes, remembering that she had Phoenix and Life. Focusing into herself she felt the presence of Phoenix. Mentally she called for it's assistance and whispered "Phoenix Flame." A golden drop of liquid trickled from the cavern ceiling, pooling into a puddle on the stone floor. From it a red light emanated, shining onto her fallen comrades. A beautiful bird soared from the light, covered in flames. It's song soothed Lenoa and rose her comrades from their current unconsciousness. The wounds on their bodies began to heal and their eyes became focused. The phoenix turned to Leviathan and blinked, then returned it's attention to Lenoa and her crew.  
  
Opening her eyes, Lenoa smiled at the bird and thanked it with a solemn bow of her head. It nuzzled her on the cheek and cooed to her, dissolving into the darkness. The only trace of it's being was a single flaming feather from the tail of the beast.  
  
Zeki attempted to rise but found that one of Seph's arms was holding him down. There came a grunt from the being beneath him as he found himself thrown back onto the stone floor. His eyes focused on Seph. He was slouched in a cross-legged position, his head nearly reaching his large feet. Silver hair flowing over his shoulders and trailing onto the black surface supporting him. His eyes were closed and sweat still covered his face from the battle a few minutes before.  
  
The makou behind him sent an eerie glow onto his back, reflecting off of his metallic hair and onto the ground. To Lenoa it almost seemed as though he was bathing in the rays and yet, flinching at the very smell of the foul liquid. His eyes opened slightly, staring blankly at his own feet.  
  
A stuttering whisper came from his parted lips.  
  
"I had no.... no idea.... of th....this creature's strength.... It was almost blinding.... Everything was an inferno of all my torture and a reflection of all my pain.... I just.... couldn't handle it anymore.... The force.... the whispers.... the General urging me to let him take over...." He suddenly jerked his head towards the ceiling, tears flowed freely from his pooling green eyes. "I just.... The blood rage came over me and all of my moves were tactless and foolish.... All I wanted was blood... I wanted myself covered in it.... I wanted to taste that beautiful coppery sensation flowing into my mouth never-ending... My skin screamed for it.... and sadly..... I myself longed for it...."  
  
His silent tears flowed down face and dripping onto the ground. His silence faded into shuddering sobs as he brought his hands to his head, entwining his fingers in his hair and clenching at the skull beneath it... almost as though he wished the bloodshed so much that he would pry his own head from his shoulders.... perhaps that is what he was thinking.... The only release from the sorrow and the antagonizing pain was the end of his own life.  
  
Lenoa stepped forward, but s hand gripped her shoulder. She flinched and shot her head around, but no person was there to match the pressure put on herself.... no body there whatsoever, though a voice whispered in her ear, one that she had heard before.  
  
"Leave him be. This is a challenge that he himself must overcome. Life is full of torture, however each challenge is unlike any other and only makes you stronger in time."  
  
"N... Nagusame...?"  
  
"Hush.... something's coming."  
  
Lenoa, out of sheer suprise looked around. The pressure on her arm had released, but there was no sound save the quiet sobs of the Colonel.  
  
Zeki glanced up at her and stared past her as though he were about to faint. His child-like eyes were vacant and almost sad as he attempted to stand, but fell to the ground with the sensation of another presence. The will of this creature was strong, very strong and it's being was the pure essence of evil. Though people say that there is no true evil in the world,l at this point in time it seemed as though Saytin had returned to rule the face of the Planet.  
  
Lenoa, however, felt nothing but the light quiver of fear from the spirit of her colleague. Nagusame's stale breaths did not realy exist, but just like any other being the breath could be felt and heard. Having equipped the Faerie Ring, The woman could not feel the presence of darkness or even the realization of the deepening shadows within the cave. A light green glow was the only source of light. Its filmy mist carrying an eerie feeling within the gaseous fumes. The sheer smell was almost overwhelming, but that was something that had to be ignored....  
  
Zeki cursed suddenly and struggled to his knees, grabbing his weapon from the ground. The metal blade glinting in the toxic light. Dragging himself up, using the scythe as a prop, he grimaced at Lenoa. How could she not feel the pain.... the agony. It was torture through an eternity of weakness. The feeling could be described as what one would imagine after having your flesh ripped off and you left with your muscle exposed to the sun and the salt within the oceanic air around you. Like an uncovered wound deep in your body.... there are not enough words to describe it.  
  
He attempted to utter something, but all that escaped was a croak. He glances at his gloved hand and saw that it was ripped and tattered beyond repair. Luckily the materia orbes had remained. What he would do without that Great Lizard, he wouldn't know. Though, she realy wasn't a Lizard now. She was a humanoid, a summon, a beautiful creature who's face was lined with pale silver scales and her crimson eyes glowing within the deep darkness.... but there was no time to think about that beauty now, he had to warn Lenoa....  
  
"Lenoa... the creature...."  
  
His voice was cut off by the sudden rumbling of the ground and the hideous stench overpowering the makou. It was the smell of sulfur.... It reached out to all around it and only one person seemed to be left untouched. That person was Sephiroth. Perhaps his body was filled with an immunity to evil, but how would that explain his earlier defeat and his near death with the wound within his chest? Those were questions that would have to wait for later answers. The creature was drawing on them and there was nothing.... nothing in the world that could save them from certain death.  
  
Note: Alright people, I'm sorry that I'm cutting this off so soon, but I couldn't find anything else to write and I'm brainstorming for the battle. If anyone here has any ideas that aren't too cliche let me know and I will check over them to see what I can do. For now I hope that I will be able to avoid any more moving problems and also any major chunks of depression. Someone please tell the freakin' Writier's block to stay out of my path, 'else I will turn it into a self wravaging piece of chaos! Thank you for reading this section once more and please be on the look out for more to come! ~^  
  
~ Haily  
  
P.S. If you people don't know my E-mail it is zekirocks@yahoo.com Really easy if you know my URL. That's about it! Jaa ne! 


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